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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




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:ELS1GH INCUBATOP v 




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THE IMPROVED 
EXCELSIOR, BROODER, 



2I7&2I9N.3 R . D STREET , QUINCY, ILL. 

COPYRIGHTED HB l80I. 



Improved Excelsior Incubator 




STANDARD APPARATUS OF THE WORLD 

FOR 

HATCHING CHICKENS. 



Perfectly Reliable and Self-Regulating. 
Perfect Hatching. 



Economical and 



HUNDREDS IN SUCCESSFUL OPERATION! 



Guaranteed to hatch a larger percentage of fertile eggs at less cost 
than any other Hatcher. 

It is the Hatcher for the Fanciers, Farmers, Amateurs, Women, or 
anybody who wishes to make the poultry business profitable and at 
the same time amuse and instruct them in their leisure moments. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, ADDRESS 



Patentee and Sole Manufacturer, 



(JUINCY, ILLINOIS. 



THE 



"EXCELSIOR" 

POULTRY BOOK 




BY FANNY FIELD, 

Poultry Editor of the Prairie Farmer, Orange Judd Farmer, and a 

frequent contributor to the Omo Farmer, and other farm 

and poultry papers. 



r 



QUINCY, ILLIN 



W * ' 



COPYRIGHT, 

1891, 

BY GEO. H. STAHL. 






TO 

THE POULTRY FRATERNITY 

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED. 



TO MY READERS. 



In writing this book the object I had in view was 
to £ive in plain, everyday English just such informa- 
tion about poultry raising as my own experience and 
observation has taught me that every beginner in the 
poultry business is anxious to obtain. Hoping that 
my work may help you all, I am 

Your sincere friend and well= wisher, 

FANNY FIELD 




FANNY FIELD. 



THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 



CHAPTER I. 

POULTRY RAISING PAYS. 

Some people are inclined to the belief that the poultry business is a 
rather small business, while others claim that "the annual value of the 

Soultry product of the United States exceeds that of the wheat crop." 
iow I don't know much abiut the size of the poultry business taken as 
a whole— don't know whether "poultry is king" or not, but I do know 
from my own experience in poultry raising, and from the experience of 
other poultry raisers, that poultry can be made to pay a greater profit 
in proportion to the time, labor, and money invested than any other 
crop that can be grown on a farm— boys and girls excepted. This may 
sound like an extravagant statement, but I know exactly what I am 
writing about, and have the facts and figures to back up my statements. 

Of my own success in the poultry business I will not say much here, 
lest it sound too much like "bragging"; suffice it to say that I made my 
poultry pay from the start, and after I had mastered the business the 
profits exceeded my most sanguine expectations. But I am going to tell 
you what some of my friends and acquaintances have done with poul- 
try. One commenced half a dozen years ago wii h 50 hens, a very small 
stock of experience with poultry, and made a clear profit of $70 the first 
year. The second year he made $128 from 95 hens; the third year 
$329 from 200 hens; the fourth year he bought an incubator and brood- 
ers, and with their help cleared almost $500 from 250 hens, which was 
more than he made from all the other crops raised that year on his 80- 
acre farm; and it was not a bad year for the other crops either. The 
fifth year my farmer friend added another incubator to his outfit, and at 
the close of the year found that he could honestly claim a clear profit of 
$900 from his poultry business. This last year he cleared about $1500 
from his poultry, and over one-half of the profit was from his spring 
chickens and ducks alone. 

Another poultry raiser, who makes market eggs the main thing, but 
who raises a few hundred broilers each season, and sells a good many 
eggs for hatching, writes me that he has for the past four years made 
from $800 to $L000 a year from a breeding stock of 300 fowls kept on a 
little 25-acre farm, "and worked out carpentering about quarter of the 
time be?ides." 

Still another poultryman, who devotes his time and talents to the 
spring chicken business, hatching and raising the chickens wholly by 
artificial methods, cleared $2500 last year, and that too without working 
any harder, perhaps not so hard, as some of his farmer neighbors who 
didn't make more than half as much. 

And from other poultry raisers in different parts of our country, whose 



6 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY ROOK. 

experience and opinions I have been at some trouble to get for your 
benefit, I have obtained figures which show a profit from $1.00 to $5.00 
per head on every fowl kept for breeding stock. Now just compare the 
profits of the poultry business with the credit side of other branches of 
farming. Take your dairy : suppose you keep six cows ; then, of course, 
you sell either milk or butter. How much profit do you make from 
your cows per head in a year? One farmer who keeps six cows and sells 
butter at a little above the average price for good dairy butter, told me 
that his cows brought him an average yearly profit of $20.00 per head. 
He values his cows at $40.00 each. One of his neighbors, a woman, 
keeps sixteen hens, and makes a profit of $20.00 a year from them— as 
much as he makes from a cow. The sixteen hens are worth $12 00— not 
quite one-third as much as one of the cows. From 100 hens she could 
make more money than he makes from six cows, and that too with less 
work, and less than half the capital. 

Take your root crops, your grain crops, or your hay. How much profit 
can a farmer make on an acre of land devoted to grain or root crops, or 
to hay? Can he make a profit of $100 per acre on wheat, corn, or pota- 
toes? I don't know; but I do know that a poultry raiser who under- 
stands his business can make more than $100 profit from an acre of land 
devoted to the production of poultry and eggs for the market. 

Yes, poultry raising pays. It has paid others, and it will certainly 
pay you if you go at it in a sensible, business-like way, and stick to it. 

SOME WORK IN IT. 

The man or woman who goes into the poultry business with the ex- 
pectation of making a great deal of money without working much for 
it, will get most sublimely left. I want you to understand at the very 
outset that this poultry business is not an "easy" sort of business lhat 
will pretty much run itself, and still pay a big profit. Poultry raising is 
no "royal road" to wealth ; neither is it a short cut across lots. To be 
sure there is no great amount of what is usually called "heavy" work 
connected with poultry raising, but there is an immense amount of light 
work, unceasing care and watchfulness, a patient attention to minute 
details, a continual looking after little things needed in order to make 
the business successful, And come to think the matter over, all these 
things put together do make pretty hard, "wearing" kind of work after 
all ; and it is just the kind of work that men generally don't like to do, 
consequently they neglect 1t, and that is the reason so many men fail to 
make poultry pay. 

Success or failure in poultry keeping does not depend wholly upon 
any one thing, but upon many little things. A close looking after and 
prompt attention to all the petty details of poultry management will 
ensure success, while a neglect of this little thing to-day, that little thing 
to-morrow, and some other little thing the next day, each one of which, 
may seem but a trifle when considered alone, will in the end cause fail- 
ure. Look closely after your business, keep track of everything con- 
nected with it, and do everything just when the time comes to do that 
thing. Success in poultry raising, as in any other honest calling, can 
only be won by the steady, faithful, "plodding" worker. 
BRAINS NEEDED. 

There are men in the world, and we all know some of them, who 
seem to think that the poultry business will do well enough for women, 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 7 

but is entirely beneath the dignity of a full-grown man Of course they 
know tbat a good many men are making money in the poultry business, 
but they argue that these successful poultry keepers must have a soft 
spot somewhere in their heads; that there must be a screw loose some- 
where in their make-up— something which renders them incapable of 
managing any other branch of farming, else surely they would not 
spend their time fussing with a lot of hens. Let me tell you, my mis- 
guided brother, that it requires just as much common sense and judg- 
ment, just as much of the qualities of mind known in common parlance 
as ''gumption" and "calculation," just as many brains to manage a poul- 
try farm successfully as it does to manage a cattle or sheep ranch, a 
wheat or a dairy farm, or any other farm that amounts to anything. 

CAN'T BE OVERDONE. 

A good many farmers who know well enough that poultry raising pays 
are afraid to keep more than a dozen or so fowls for fear that this poul- 
try business will soon be overdone, and prices for poultry and eggs fall 
away below the cost of raising. Now you needn't worry a bit about 
that. Croakers have talked that way ever since Mrs. Noah insisted on 
taking her favorite hen into the ark. I have no doubt but that Noah, 
or some of the boys, told her that after the shower there wouldn't be 
any market for eggs and chickens, and besides they didn't believe the 
old hen was worth saving anyway. But Mrs. Noah had her way (women 
generally do), and I have never heard of a time from that day to this 
when good poultry, or fresli eggs had to be given away because there was 
no paying market for them, and I don't believe any one else has. 

The" production of poultry and eggs has increased enormously during 
the last ten years, but still the demand for prime poultry and fresh 
eggs is ahead of the supply, and there has been no falling off in 
prices. The American hen does not supply our own markets. Every 
year millions of dozens of eggs are imported from Canada, and from 
across the ocean. The people who are so afraid that the poultry busi- 
ness will be overdone, do not take into consideration the enormous and 
steady increase of popula ion, or the fact that as production increases 
consumption will increase. The time may come when production will 
increase to such an extent that prices will be somewhat lower than now, 
but as prices decrease the poultry raiser will learn to cheapen production 
so that he will still have a big margin for profit. 

POULTRY ON THE FARM. 

If it pays to produce poultry and eggs to sell, and it certainly does, it 
will pay to produce them for home consumption. I never raised much 
pork or beef, but those who have, and figured out the cost of raising, 
declare that it costs less to raise a chicken than it does the same number 
of pounds of beef or pork. Anyway, it is handy for the farmer's wife 
who lives in a place where other fresh meat cannot often be obtained in 
warm weather, to have her supply of fresh meat in the shape of lusty 
young roosters, or good fat hens, for she can kill enough for one meal at 
a time, while the next meal can run around without danger of spoiling 
before wanted. 

The farmer who keeps a moderate-sized flock of poultry— say from 50 
to 100 hens, can keep them cheaper than anybody else, for the reason 
that he can give them practically unlimited range during at least one: 



8 TIIE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

half of the year, when they will pick up a good share of their living; 
and during the other half of the year he can feed them largely on refuse 
food, unsalable vegetables, etc., much of which would otherwise go 
lareely to waste 

Besides furnishing the farmer's table with a cheap, abundant, and con- 
venient supply of fresh meat, the poultry flock greatly benefit the farmer 
by devouring injurious worms and insects. In many places farmers 
have given up trying to raise plums on account of the injury done by 
the plum curculio, but if they will keep the ground around the trees 
destitute of grass, and allow the fowls to loaf there, the biddies will 
capture the mischief-making insects as they come out of the ground, and 
your fruit will escape the bite which ruins it. 

The value of poultry manure is also an item that farmers should not 
lose sight of. In any part of the country where the land requires 
manure in order to induce it to produce paying crops, the manure from 
a flock of fowls will, if saved in good shape and properly applied to the 
land, pay for all the time spent in caring for the fowls. A Massachu- 
setts farmer, who keeps G2 hens, says that the hens make two barrels of 
manure while eight head of cattle are making one cord, and the two 
barrels of manure, used as he uses it, will grow just as much corn as the 
cord of stable manure. And one of my acquaintances who makes a 
specialty of growing vegetables for market, but who also keeps a flock 
of GO fowls and raises one or two hundred chickens every year, says: 
"Poultry manure is a valuable fertilizer, quite as valuable as any of the 
commercial fertilizers, and I consider that the manure from my poultry 
pays fully one- third the cost of keeping the flock." 

POULTRY IN LIMITED SPACE. 

But while a farm is the best place to raise poultry, it does not follow 
that every poultry raiser must have a big farm for his hens to ramble 
over. Poultry can be profitably kept in limited space. I know of many 

Eaying flocks that are confined the year round to the limits of their 
ouses and yards. Many village poultry keepers, who are obliged to 
keep their poultry confined, make their hens pay better than the ma- 
jority of fanners' flocks. They have better fowls than the farmer, more 
comfortable houses, and bestow better food and care. 

POULTRY RAISING FOR WOMEN. 
For women who possess an average amount of health and strength, 
and who have or can get a few acres of land, I can recommend the poul- 
try business as a means of livelihood. I know several women who are 
supporting themselves, and others dependent upon them, from the 
profits of their poultry business; and other women can do as well, pro- 
vided they go into the business with a determination to succeed, and 
stick to it. Poultry keeping has none of the drawbacks that many oc- 
cupations present to women who have themselves and children to 
support. There is but little work connected with poultry raising that a 
wo nan cannot do better than most men A woman may not be able to 
build poultry houses, or drive the posts for the yard fences, but it is not 
necessary that she should be able to do such things any more than it is 
necessary that she should be able to make the dish-pan that she washes 
dishes in, or the darning needle that she uses in mending stockings, or 
the cradle that holds the baby. Poultry raising does not require the 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 9 

exercise of any great amount of mere brute strength, but it does, as I 
have rermrked before, require p\tienc3, gentleness, unceasing, watchful 
care, and a close attention to minute details, and for this reason most 
women are especially fitted for the work. I believe that most women 
are born poultry raisers; anyway they generally master the details of 
the business quicker, and make their fowls pay better, than men do 
under like conditions. 

Another point in favor of poultry raising is that it is work that can and 
must be done at home, and the children, instead of being a hindrance, 
can be taught to help in many ways. Next, poultry raising has always, 
so far as my knowledge extends, been considered women's work (I sup- 
pose that is the reason why some men consider it too small business for 
them), and a woman can engage in it without the fear of being pointed 
at as a "dreadful creature" — out of her "proper sphere." Besides this it 
is a business that can be started with very little capital, and will soon 
yield an income. It is not like investing your money where you must 
wait six months or a year before any returns begin to come in. 

And for women, farmers' wives and daughters, and others living in 
country places, who do not wish to devote their whole time to earn- 
ing money, but who do wish and feel the need of devoting a part of 
their time to some money-making occupation, there are but few things 
that come within their reach that will pay as well in cash as a small 
flock of fowls well cared lor. 

FOR INVALIDS. 

Right here I want to put in a protest against 1he perpetual reiteration 
by some poultry writers of the old, old story to the effect that poultry- 
keeping is a very suitable and profitable occupation for half-invdlid 
women who are not strong enough to engage in any employment ihat 
requires downright hard work— that a half invalid woman can make a 
living by raising poultry. A semi-invalid may undertake some of the 
lighter work connected with poultry raising — she may even assume the 
entire care of a small flock of fowls, and in many cases be greatly bene- 
fited by the out-door air and exercise, but she certainly cannot do 
enough to support herself. It is with poultry raising as with any other 
occupation that women may engage in, — the ones that make "big 
money"— the successful ones, are the ones that do the most and best 
work; and in order to do her best a woman must possess her full power 
of health and strength. I do not write this to discourage any one, but 
to warn them against indulging in hopes that cannot be realized, and 
going beyond their strength in the vain effort to do the work of well 
women. Let your work be according to your strength ; and then if your 
health and strength increases you can increase your work accordingly. 

WHAT BOYS AND GIRLS HAVE DONE. 

In the report of the Poultry Committee of the Massachusetts Board of 
Agriculture we find an account of a youth who built a moderate sized 
poultry house, bought a small flock of fowls, took care of them while 
attending school, and doing his share of the "chores", and in one year 
and a half cleared, afcer paying for all food consumed, one hundred and 
forty dollars; and yet he spent no more time in caring for his poultry 
than many of his schoolmates did in amusements which profited them 
nothing beyond the passing pleasure of the moment. 



10 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

Another young man who reached his twenty-first birthday this last 
summer had then $800 in bank, which he had cleared from his poultry 
in the six years preceding his majority, besides doing his share of the 
other work on a 2 0-acre farm. 

And the girls are not one bit behind the boys. Among my acquaint- 
ances there is a farmer's daughter who a few months ago bought a $175 
parlor organ, and paid for it with the money she made from her poultry 
in the last two years. 

Another farmer's daughter of fourteen, very fond of reading history 
and biography, wanted some books which her parents could not afford 
to buy for her. Her father said : " Katie, I'll give you a chance to earn 
the books you want. I'll turn the poultry all over to you, and you may 
have all you can make over and above expenses. I will allow you 
market price for all the eggs and chickens used at home, and shall 
charge you for food furnished your poultry, but you must keep an accu- 
rate account of everything." That was two years ago, and now Katie 
has almost $100 worth of books which she has bought with her poultry 
money, and there is not a prouder, happier girl in seventeen States. 

What these young people have done other boys and girls can do if 
they will; and I advise the farmers whose sons and daughters want to 
engage in poultry raising to let them go ahead. The business will pay 
in cash; and better than that your boys and girls will learn to think and 
manage for themselves, will learn to like farm life better, and will acquire 
business habits, and habits of system and economy that will be of incal- 
culable benefit to them in the future. 

WHEN TO BEGIN. 
There is a market for poultry products all the year round ; you don't 
have to wait six months or a year before the returns begin to come in; 
so you can begin almost any time (except perhaps in the "dead" of a 
northwestern winter), after you have decided that you can and will 
make poultry pay, and have money enough to begin with. 

WHERE TO BEGIN. 

To those who propose to make the market poultry business their chief 
business, the location of the poultry farm is a matter of importance. It 
must be near a good market; but in these days of express trains, 
fast freights, and refrigerator cars, it is not necessary that the poultry 
farm should be on high-priced land close to a city or large village. You 
can go back several hundred miles from a city, and still be near your 
market, provided you are on a through line of railroad. 

Besides our cities, manufacturing and mining villages are good markets 
for poultry products. I once lived in a mining village where during 
half the year it was almost impossible to get fresh eggs and chickens at 
any price ; and when we could get them the prices were higher than in 
the city market sixty miles away. And now in the country village 
which is my present abiding place, and which is within "teaming" dis- 
tance of two large manufacturing places, fresh eggs nearly always com- 
mand higher prices than in New York or Boston. Any of the New 
England States, New York, Eastern Pennsylvania, and New Jersey are 
good States to move to to go into the business of raising poultry and 
eggs for market. Of course you won't have a chance to do so much 
"growing up with the country" in the East as you would in the West';, 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 11 

but all the same there are no better places in the United States, or any- 
where else, for profitable poultry raising than some of those rocky New 
England "hill-farms," where the land, what there is of it, is so poor 
naturally that it won't grow pennyroyal. Many of those hill-farms, 
those with good buildings on them too, can be bought for a ridiculously 
low price; and when you get "settled" on one of them, instead of being 
"a thousand miles from anywhere," you will be near good schools, 
churches, and good neighbors; and as for a market for your poultry 
products, you can't get out of reach of a good market if you try. In 
most places poultry and eggs can be sold for "cash at the door." 

But bear in mind that poultry properly managed will pay in any lo- 
cality; so if you desire to undertake the business, either as a means of 
livelihood, or as a sort of "side show" to provide yourselves with some 
extras that could not otherwise be afforded, do not hesitate because you 
happen to live where you cannot obtain the high prices that the Eastern 
poultry raiser gets for his poultry products, but go ahead and do the 
best you can right where you are. ' Half a loaf is better than no bread" 
every time. 

HOW TO BEGIN. 

Do not imagine that you can begin with 1,000, or even 500 fowls, and 
make them pay. You can't do it. It requires a good deal of poultry 
knowledge to enable one to successfully manage 500 fowls, and you can 
not buy this knowledge w T ith the fowls, or "catch" it like the measles or 
whooping-cough or learn it in "six easy lessons". The poultry business 
must be learned just like any other business, by study and practice. 
Begin at the beginning and learn one thing at a time. Begin with a 
small flock of fowls, and as your poultry knowledge increases, you can 
increase the size of your flock until you have as many as you can man- 
age profitably. Twenty-five or thirty laying hens will be enough for 
those who have had ho experience with poultry to begin with; while 
those who have already had good success with that number may safely 
venture to try a flock of 50, 75, or even 100 hens. 

If you are at present engaged in anything by which you can make a 
living, don't, because somebody is making more money with poultry 
than you are in your- business, quit everything and rush headlong into 
the poultry business. Stick to your other work, but get a few fowls and 
care for them between times, and study up the hen business at odd 
times when your other work does not press. In this way you will get a 
good deal of poultry knowledge without losing time from your regular 
work, or encroaching upon whatever capital you may happen to have. 
After a while your poultry business wiil grow until you can no longer 
manage it in the odds and ends of time that you can spare from your 
regular occupation; then you can drop all other work, and devote your 
time and talents to the poultry business with a certainty of realizing a 
fair per cent on the investment. 

HOW MUCH CAPITAL? 

" Once upon a time " a Yankee who had just moved into a new place 
wanted to start in the poultry business, but was too poor, or too stingy, 
to buy the necessary fowls, so he contrived a way to get them for nothing. 
He borrowed a sitting hen from one neighbor, a dozen of eggs from 
another, put them together, and in course of time the hen hatched every 
egg, and raised them until they were old enough to care for themselves, 



12 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

He could then return the hen to her owner, hut how about the eggs? 
That puzzled him at first, but fina ly he hit upon the plan of keeping 
the hen until she laid a dozen eggs; "then he "paid" the borrowed eggs, 
returned the borrowed hen and remarked : "I calkerlate I've got as nice 
a brood of chickens as anybody, and they aint cost me a cent neither!" 
Now I don't want any of you to begin the poultry business that way, 
but I do want to impress upon your minds that you do not need several 
hundred dollars in order to make a start in the poultry business. If you 
already have or can have the use of a small piece of land— half an acre 
or so,— and have any old building that can be transformed into a com- 
fortable poultry house, it will require but very little cash capital to 
begin with. Among my friends there is one woman, a mechanic's wife, 
who clears about $300 a year from the sale of broilers that she raises in 
a building and small yard that occupies one corner of a village lot of 
one-third of an acre, and she commenced with just $25.00 in cash and a 
dozen of the commonest kind of common fowls. If you have the land 
you only need cash enough to buy some fowls, build the house and 
fences, and buy food enough to last until the returns begin to come in. 

PAY AS YOU GO. 
If you have not money enough to build just such a house as you want, 
and buy as many fowls as you wish to ttart with, don't go in "debt, but 
do the best you can with what money you have If you can do no bet- 
ter begin with one hen, a dozen eggs, and a chicken coop. Better begin 
that way than to begin with borrowed money, or go in debt for any- 
thing. Pay as you go. 

LOOK AFTER THE LITTLE THINGS. 

Failure in the poultry business comes from seemingly little things. A 
little neglect here, a little more there, a little waste of food to-day, a little 
more to-morrow, and putting off until to-morrow or next day the work 
which should be done to-day, are all little things, but they all count, and 
in the long run will bring disappointment and pecuniary loss as surely 
as two and two make four. 

KEEP ACCOUNTS. 

When you start your poultry business, start a poultry account, and 
keep it right along as long as you keep in the business; then you can 
always tell just where your business stands, and how much it pays. You 
will not need a "set of books," or any elaborate "system of book keeping" 
for a poultry account ; all you really need is a blank book in which to 
charge the fowls with all expense incurred, and credit them with all the 
eggs and chickens used and sold. 

DON'T BE DISCOURAGED 
And give up if everything does not go smoothly from the start. The 
poultry business will have its ups and downs like any other business, 
but if you are determined to succeed, and stick to your business right 
through thick and thin, you will succeed. Start out with an ironclad 
determination to succeed, no matter what obstacle may be in your path; 
never let a doubt of your ability to overcome all difficulties enter your 
mind; work away bravely and hopefully in the face of all discourage- 
ments, and your ultimate success is as sure as anything in this world 
can be. 



CHAPTER II. 

ABOUT BREEDS. 

As market poultry raisers, and the world generally outside of a few 
fanciers, care little or nothing about the "origin and history of the do- 
mestic fowl,'' or the origin of the different breeds, and I don't know much 
of anything about it anyway, — don't know, or care, whether the "Gallus 
bunkiva" or some other Gallus was the parent of our domestic fowls, I 
shall not burden these pages with much "history", but shall tell what I 
do know about the leading breeds. It is not where a breed came from, 
or what it was long ago, but what it is, and what it is good for now that 
interests the great mass of poultry raisers. 

It is absolutely necessary that the beginner in poultry raising should 
have some knowledge of the merits of the prominent breeds in order to 
enable him to select the breed best adapted to his climate, and to the 
special purpose for which he proposes to keep fowls. One of the reasons 
why so many poultry raisers have failed to achieve the highest degree 
of success, is because they had not the "best breed" for their purpose. 
If vou fail that way it will not be my fault. 

First, I will, for the benefit of the uninitiated, — that they may better 
understand my description of the different breeds, explain the meaning 
ot some of the 

TECHNICAL TERMS USED. 

Beard. — A bunch of feathers under the throat of some breeds of chickens 

Cock. — A male fowl over one year old. 

Cockerel. — A male fowl under one year old. 

Cushion. — The mass of feathers over the rump of a hen, covering the 
tail — chiefly developed in Cochins. 

Dubbing.— Cutting off the comb, wattles and ear-lobes, so as to leave 
the head smooth. 

Ear-lobes. — The folds of bare skin hanging just below the ears — some- 
times called the "deaf ears." 

Face. — The bare skin around the eye. 

Fluff.— Soft, downy feathers about the thighs— chiefly developed in 
Asiatics. 

Hackles. — The long, narrow feathers on the necks of fowls. 

Hock. — The joint between the thigh and shank. 

Mossy. — Confused or indistinct marking in the plumage. 

Pea-comb.— A triple comb resembling three combs in one— the middle 
one the highest. 

Penciling. — Small markings, or stripes over a feather. 

Primaries,— The flight feathers of the wings, hidden when the wing is 
closed. 

Pullet.— A young hen— one under a year old. The term is not properly 
applicable after the bird is a year old. 

Booster. — A name applied to both cock and cockerel. 



14 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

Saddle.— The posterior part of the back reaching to the tail in a cock, 
and answering to the cushion in a hen. 

Secondaries. — The quill feathers of the wings which are visible when 
the wings are folded. 

Shaft. — The stem or quill part of a feather. 

Shank. — The lower or scaly part of the leg. 

Sickles.— The pair of long curved feathers in a cock's tail. 

Spangling. — The marking produced by a spot or splash on each feather, 
differing from the ground color. 

Strain — A race of fowls that has been carefully bred by one breeder, 
or his successor, for a number of years, and has acquired an individual 
character of its own. 

Spur. — The sharp defensive weapon on the heel of a cock. 

Wattles. — The depending structure at each side of the base of the beak, 
chiefly developed in the males. 

Vulture-Hock. — Stiff, projecting feathers at the hock joint. 

Wing-Bars. — A line of dark color across the middle of the wings. 

Wing-Bows. — The upper, or shoulder part of the wings. 

Wing Coverts. — The broad feathers covering the roots of the secondary 
quills. 

For the above definitions I am indebted to "Wright's Illustrated Book 
of Poultry." 

LIGHT BBAHMAS. 

This cut correctly represents a pair of Light Brahmas. Their plumage 
is white throughout, except a distinct black stripe down the center of 
the hackle feathers, black pri- 
maries, secondaries black on the 
inner web, black tail, and glossy 
greenish black tail coverts. They 
have small pea-combs, small 
» wattles, bright red ear-lobes and 
\ yellow legs, which are feathered 
I to the extremity of the outer 
' and middle toes. Hens of this 
breed, at one year old, weigh 
from seven to ten pounds, cocks 
from nine to twelve pounds. As 
they are naturally quiet fowls, 
and cannot fly much, a fence 
four feet high will keep them 
within bounds. They are good 
= winter layers of large eggs, good 
sitters and good mothers. The 
- z pullets commence laying when 
' about six months old. The 
farmer who wants a breed of 
fowls that will lay in winter, 
that can easily be fenced in or out when necessary, and that will at five 
or six months old give the greatest dressed weight in return for the food 
and care bestowed, will find the Light Brahmas a grand good breed for 
his purpose. 





GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 15 

DARK BRAHMAS. 

This cut shows a pair of Dark Brahmas. The plumage of the male is 
black, except the hackle and saddle feathers, which are silvery-white 
with a distinct black stripe down the 
center of each feather, the silvery- 
white wing-coverts and wing-bows, 
and the white outer web of the 
secondaries. Legs are yellow, or red- 
dish-yellow, and ' feathers like the 
Light Brahmas. The hens of this 
breed are a beautiful steel-grav in 
color, with distinct dark penciling 
throughout. The hackles are like 
those of the male bird. Comb, wat- 
tles, and ear-lobes of both sexes are 
like those of the Light Brahmas. 
They equal the Light Brahmas in size, 
but lay slightly smaller eggs. As win- 
ter layers, as sitters and mothers, and 
as a farm and market fowl they are 
fully the equals of the Light Brahmas, though for some reason they are 
not as extensively bred. 

PARTRIDGE COCHINS. 

Here we have a cut of a pair of Partridge Cochins. The plumage of 

the male is black, 
except the hackle 
and saddle feath- 
ers.which are a rich 
red, with a black 
stripe down the 
middle of each 
feather, and the 
wings, which are 
marked with rich 
bay color. The main 
color of the hen is 
a rich brown, pen- 
ciled with a darker 
brown; but the 
hackles are a red- 
dish-gold with the 
black stripe in the 
center of each 
feather, and the tail 
black and almost 
concealed by the 
cushion. Both sex- 
es have yellow legs, 
feathered like the 
Brahmas, rather 
small, upright sin- 
gle combs, and somewhat larger wattles and ear-lobes than the Brahmas 
Weight about the same as the Brahmas. With us the. Partridge Cochins 




16 



THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 



excelled other breeds in the number of eggs laid during winter. The 

Sullets usually commenced laying two or three weeks earlier than 
Brahma pullets of the same age, fed and cared for the same way. Their 
eggs are not quite so large as Light Brahma eggs. 

OTHER COCHINS. 

Besides the Partridge Cochins we have tour other varieties of the 
breed— the Buff, Black, White, and the Pea-comb Partridge Cochins. 
The last named variety is exactly like the single comb variety, with the 
single exception of the comb. This variety is not now a 'Standard" 
variety, but the hens lay just as well as though recognized by the Stand- 
ard ; and according to my notions a pea-comb looks better than a single 
one; anyway it will stand more cold without freezing. Black Cochins 
are black throughout; White Cochins entirely white, and the Buff Co- 
chins a clear, rich buff, 
except the tail - coverts, 
which are dark chestnut, 
or chestnut mixed with 
black. These varieties all 
have the single combs, 
and yellow, feathered legs 
and toes of the Partridge 
Cochin. Standard weights 
for all varieties of Cochins 
are the same, but we never 
could get our Blacks and 
our Whites quiteas heavy 
as the other varieties of 
the Cochin family; and 
with the same food and 
care our Partridge Co- 
chins would outlay the 
others. The White Co- 
chins came next, while 
the Buffs were the poorest 
layers, though their eggs 
were larger, quite as large 
as the Light Brahma egg. 
The Cochins are not bet- 
ter on the wing than the 
Brahmas, and can there- 
fore be easily fenced in 
or out. As sitters and 
mothers all the varieties 
of the Cochin family can 
be depended upon. 

BARRED PLYMOUTH ROCKS. 

• This is an illustration of a Barred Plymouth Rock hen— a Dominique 
or hawk-colored fowl, with single comb and clean yellow legs, and a 
plump, " meaty"-looking body. Looks as if she could scratch for her 
living, too. 




GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 



This fellow is her mate, and he looks like the hen, except that he is 
bigger, and a shade or two lighter in color. 




There is another variety of colored Plymouth Rocks, called the Barred 
Pea-comb Plymouth Rocks, and they are exactly like the single-comb 
variety except in the matter of comb. Both these varieties"of Plymouth 
Rocks are next the Brahmas in size ; and as for useful qualities— well, for 
a general farm and market fowl for those who desire to keep but one 
breed, and want that one good for everything, the Plymouth Rocks are 
ahead of anything el?e that wears feathers. There are other breeds that 
are better for some special purposes, but as a "general utility" fowl none 
come up to the Rocks. The Plymouth Rocks mature earlier than the 
Brahmas and Cochins — the females usually laying when five months old. 



THE EXCELSIOR POULTKY BOOK. 




WHITE PLY- 
MOUTH ROCKS. 
This illustration 
shows a group of 
White Plymouth 
Rocks. Except in 
color of plumage 
they look like the 
single comb colored 
Rocks. They are a 
comparatively new 
breed, but are al- 
ready very popu- 
lar, and probablv 
are destined to rank 
with th e colored va- 
rieties. 




LANGSHANS. 

Here we have an illustration of a pair of Langshans. In color the 

Langshans are black with a greenish tinge. They have single combs, 






GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 19 

and feathered legs. In size, as winter layers, as sitters and mothers, and 
for market, the Langshans equal the Brahmas. 




LA CED WYANDO TTES. 
Here we have a cut of a pair of Laced Wyandottes, a comparatively 
new but very popular breed. In size and shape they are like the Ply- 
mouth Rocks; in color, they are black and white, the feathers on the 
breast of both cock and hen, and on back of hen, being black, with a 
white spot in center of each feather. They have low rose combs (a dou- 
ble comb, somewhat wider than a pea-comb, and the top evenly covered 
with small points), and yellow legs. As a general purpose fowl they rank 
next the Plymouth Rocks. 




WHITE WYANDOTTES. 
This is a group of White Wyandottes. They are the counterparts of 
the Laced Wyandottes in everything except color. 



THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK- 



BROWN LEGHORN 8. 



- 



There are six different varieties of the Leghorn family — the Black, 
Brown, White, Dominique, Rose-comb Brown and Rose-comb White. 
Our illustration shows a trio of the Single-comb Brown, which is the 
most popular variety of this very popular breed. 

The prevailing color of the Brown Leghorn hens is brown ; the back 
is dark brown penciled with lighter brown ; the breast a dark salmon- 
brown, shading off to a lighter color on the under-part of the body; the 




body brown, and the neck feathers yellowish-brown striped with black. 
Large, single combs, drooping to one side, white ear-lobes, and bright 
yellow legs, with a narrow black stripe down each toe. 

The Brown Leghorn rooster is more gorgeously arrayed than his mate; 
his neck feathers are a golden- bay striped with black; back dark red 
striped with golden-bay; breast and under-part of body black; and the 
large tail is adorned with long, well-curved, greenish-black sickle feathers. 
Legs, feet and ear-lobes like those of the hen ; comb large, single and 
erect. 

The plumage of the Black Leghorns is black throughout; that of the 
White Leghorns is entirely white, while the Dominique Leghorns are 
in color like the Plymouth Rocks. Other points same as in the Brown 
Leghorns. 

The Rose-comb varieties of the Leghorn family are like the Single- 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUIXCY, ILLINOIS. 2t 

comb varieties, except that they have a rose instead of a single comb. 
The Leghorns are small fowls, the hens weighing from three to four 
pounds, the cock from four to five pounds. They mature early (cock- 
erels crowing at six weeks, and pullets laying at four months); are hardy, 
good foragers, great layers, and non-sitters. Leghorn eggs are small 
when compared with the larger breeds, but still are of fair size; and as 
in most markets "an egg is an egg" regardless of size, and a dozen of 
eggs that weigh twenty-four ounces will Dring no more money than a 
dozen that pulls down the scales at thirty or more ounces, the "fact that 
Leghorn eggs are not so large as those of some larger breed is a matter 
of little consequence to the majority of those who keep poultry "on pur- 
pose" to produce eggs for the general market. 

THE BEST VARIETY OF LEGHORNS. 

I have never been able to discover any great amount of difference in 
the egg-producing qualities of the different varieties of Leghorns. Given 
the same food, care, and housing, one variety will" undoubtedly do as 
well as another; still I advise the poultry keeper who lives where the 
winters are severe and who has not an extra comfortable house, but 
whose heart is "set" on having Leghorns, to keep the Rose-comb Leg- 
horns in preference to the Single-comb variety. He will find the "Rose- 
combs" better winter layers than the Smgle-combs would be under the 
same conditions. Why ? Simply because the rose-comb being so low 
and fiat on the head, it will endure a greater degree of cold without 
freezing. 

HAMBURG 8. 

There are six different varieties of Hamburgs— the Black, White, Sil- 
ver Spangled, Golden Spangled, Silver Penciled, and Golden Penciled. 
Our cut is intended to represent a pair 
of the Silver Spangled variety. Years 
ago the several varieties of fowls now 
known as Hamburgs were called Creoles, 
Bolton Grays, Pheasants, and ' Dutch 
Everlasting Layers." Many old farmers 
still speak of those fowls as the best lay- 
ers they ever had. 

All varieties of Hamburgs have good 
sized rose combs, wh ; te ear-lobes, dark 
legs, and large tails. Hamburgs are non- 
sitters ; good foragers ; the grown fowls 
hardy as the average if allowed full liber- 
ty, but they do not seem to bear confine- 
ment as well as some other breeds. They 
are somewhat smaller than the Leghorns, mature a little earlier, and lav 
smaller eggs, but when rightly cared for will lay a greater number o"t 
eggs in a year than any other breed of fowls in the Standard or out of it. 
Hamburg chicks should not be coaxed out of their shells into a "cold 
and unfeeling world" before settled warm weather comes in the spring, 
for they don't take kindly to the cold, wet spells of early spring weather. 
But this tenderness is hardly a drawback, for the Hamburgs mature so 
early that it is not necessary or advisable to hatch them before May. 




THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 




HOUDANS. 

Here we have an illustration of a pair of black-and-white, five- toed, top- 
knot, bearded fowls called Houdans, and a grand good breed the Houdans 
are. They are of medium size, 
i. e!, they are larger than the 
Leghorns but not so large as the 
Plymouth Rocks; plump, full 
breasted, well -shaped, small- 
I boned fowls, with pinkish-white 
legs mottled with lead color, 
and present a fine appearance 
when properly dressed for mar- 
ket. Their eggs are larger than 
those of the Leghorns, and they 
rival that breed in the number 
they will produce in a year. As 
winter layers, the Houdans 
have not as yet achieved much 
of a reputation, but I believe 
a that it is owing more to mis- 
~ management on the part of 
their owners than to any de- 
fect in the fowls. Houdans are good foragers, and, like the Leghorns 
and Hamburgs. do best where they can have as much of creation as 
they care to wander over for a foraging ground. I firmly believe that 
Houdans will pick up a living where other fowls would starve to death. 
As chicks and as fowls, Houdans are very hardy. The chicks feather up 
quickly and mature early, the pullets commencing to lay at between four 
and five months. They are nun-sitting, therefore hens of some other 
breed must be kept for sitters, unless an incubator is used. 

DORKINGS. 

This cut represents a pair of Silver Gray Dorkings— a variety of a 
breed that is not yet very popular in this country, but in England, where 
the Dorkings are bred to perfection, they are 
the favorites for farm fowls and take the lead 
as table fowls. There are three varieties of 
the^)orkings— the White, the Colored and 
the Silver Gray. The White Dorkings have 
clear white plumage, rose combs and white 
or flesh-colored legs. Colored Dorkings have 
either single or rose combs, and plumage of 
various colors; other points same as the 
White. The breast, body and tail of the 
Silver Gray Dorking cock are black ; the 
back and wing-bows silvery-white; the neck 
feathers silvery-white striped with black ; 
other points same as Colored Dorkings. The 
Silver Gray hens have silvery-white neck feathers ; silvery or slaty-gray 
backs ; salmon-red breasts, shading to gray towards the sides ; silvery or 
slaty-gray on the under part of the body, and brown and slaty-gray tail 
feathers. 

Dorkings are medium-sized fowls, good but not extra layers, good sit- 







GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 23 

ters, good mothers, and the chicks mature early, being fit for the table 
any time after ten or twelve weeks from the shell. We found early 
hatched Dorking chicks quite difficult to rear; they drooped and died 
during spells of cold wet weather that the little Rocks, Houdans, Leg- 
horns and Asiatics didn't seem to mind much. Later-hatched Dorkings 
did better In English markets a plump Dorking fowl will command a 
higher price than a fowl of any other breed, but during the two years 
that we bred them we couldn't find anybody who was willing to pay any 
more for a Dorking than for Plymouth Rocks; in fact, we cannot truth- 
fully say that the Dorkings excelled our Rocks in any points, except that 
they carried a little more breast-meat, while in hardiness and as layers 
the" Rocks were far ahead of the Dorkings. Taken altogether the Dork- 
ings have not been a success in this country except in dry and healthy 
localities ; but it seems to me that if breeders would take more pains to 
toughen and acclimate the Dorkings, they might hold a place next to 
our own Plymouth Rocks. 

JA VAS. 

There are three varieties of Javas— the Black, White, and the Mottled, 
which are black and white mixed. The Black Javas are the "parent 
variety" of this breed — the white originating in spurts from the black, 
and the Mottled from a cross between the Black and White. 

The Black Javas have single combs, black legs; are about the size of 
the Plymouth Rocks, and resemble the Dorkings iq shape. They are 
hardy, good foragers, excellent layers of large eggs, good sitters, and 
good mothers. The White and the Mot- 
tled Javas are comparative!} 7 new breeds, 
and I have had no experience with 
them; therefore will only say that those 
who have tried them are quite enthusi- 
astic in their praise; some claim that they 
equal the Leghorns in egg-production. 

MINORCAS. 

There are two varieties of the Minor- 
cas — the Black and the White. Our il- 
lustration represents a pair of the Black 
variety. The Blacks have glossy black 
plumage and dark legs ; the Whites, pure ,ajjgf 
white plumage and pinkish shanks. Both 
varieties are alike in shape, have white / ^: -. 
ear-lobes, large wattles and enormous sin- " — _: 
gle combs, which are erect on the cocks 
and lop over to one side on the hens, In size they come about half 
way between the Leghorns and Plymouth Rocks. They are non-sitters, 
and will rival the Leghorns as egg-producers. 

THE BLA CK SPANISH, 
Usually called the White Faced Black Spanish, and the Black Minorcas 
look almost exactly alike, except that the Spanish have very large white 
"faces"— so large that the fowls look unevenly balanced. The old- 
fashioned Red Faced Black Spanish were grand layers of very large 
white eggs, and breeders now claim that the "improved" (?) Spanish, i.e. 




24 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

the White Faced Black Spanish, are vastly superior to the old favorites ; 
but the cold and unpalatable fact is that in order to secure this exagger- 
ated face development the majority of breeders of Black Spanish fowls 
have sacrificed vigor and productiveness— "improved" the once good 
and deservedly popular Red Faced Black Spanish fowls "off the face of 
the earth," and given us fowls that may "score" high in the show room, 
but in egg production are inferior to the old Red Faced breed from which 
they came However, there are still some strains of Black Spanish that 
are famous layers, and the poultry raiser who seeks to buy Black Spanish 
fowls for utility should see to it that they are from a laying strain. 

POLISH FOWLS. 
There are seven varieties of Polish fowls — the White, White Crested 
Black, Golden, Silver, Bearded Golden, Bearded Silver, and Bearded 
White. Our cut shows a pair of 
the best known and handsomest 
variety— the White Crested Black. 
The crests are pure white, the rest 
of the plumage glossy black, mak- 
ing a beautiful and striking con- 
trast They have V-shaped combs, 
white ear-lobes, dark legs. White 
Polish are pure white throughout; 




other points same as the Black, ex- 
cept that the legs are not so dark. 
Golden Polish are golden-bay in 
color— the ends ot the feathers 
laced or spangled with black ; other 
I points like the White. Silver Polish 
are silvery-white, and the feathers 
^J laced or spangled with black; other 
points like the White. Give each 
of the three last-named varieties 
a full, thick beard and very small wattles, and you have the Bearded 
White, Bearded Silver, and Bearded Golden Polish. 

The Polish Fowls are non-sitters and prolific layers — almost equalling 
the Leghorns in the number produced in a year. Some poultry writers 
claim that the Polish fowls are not hardy ; I used to think so ; but later 
experience has convinced me that they are of average hardiness, and 
that the chicks are easy to raise, provided they are not hatched until 
after settled warm weather comes in the spring. And as the Polish, like 
the Leghorns and Hamburgs, mature early, it is not necessary to hatch 
them before May. Polish are about the size of Leghorns— possibly a 
bit larger. 

AMERICAN DOMINIQUES 

Are shaped something like the Dorkings, colored like the Plymouth 
Rocks, and have a rose-comb like the Hamburgs. They are hardy, ma- 
ture early, good foragers, good layers, good sitters, good mothers — in fact 
a good general purpose fowl. They are larger than the Leghorns, but 
do not average so large as the Plymouth Rocks. The Dominiques are 
an old breed— the oldest of our American breeds, and, as one poultry 
writer has well said, "no better or stronger blood flows in our fowl stock." 
From this variety comes much of the excellence of our Plymouth Rocks. 



GEO. H. STAHL, QITIXCY, ILLINOIS. 



RED CAPS. 




This cut shows a pair of Red Caps, a new breed that is said to possess 
"more important qualities than any other breed"; time alone will show 
whether they deserve half the good 
things that those who breed them claim 
for them. The males of this breed are 
red and black, with large rose comb 
dotted all over the top with small points, 
and slate- colored legs. The plumage of j 
the hens is of a rich, chestnut brown, | 
each feather spangled with black; comb | 
and legs like those of the males. Cocks 
weigh from six to eight pounds; hens 
from five to six. The Red Caps are 
hardy, mature early and are extra good 
layers. 

GAMES. 

There are a good many different va- 
rieties of Game fowls, but I shall not 
waste "valuable space" by going into 
"particulars" in regard to the looks 
of those in each variety; in fact I shouldn't mention me uauies at all 
here were it not for the fact that some misguided poultry writers are 
always recommending Games for farm fowls. I've tried Games on a 
farm!! and I don't hanker after any more. Those Games gave me more 
trouble "than any other fowls! ever had before or since. The chicks 
were easy to raise — they simply came out of the shell and went 'to 
scratching and fighting, and kept it up right along; but all the same we 
didn't find them profitable for the reason that the old Game rooster, not 
content with fighting everything on the place, "sallied forth" and killed 
about all the roosters in the neighborhood, and we had to pay for them. 
No, I don't believe in Games for farm fowls ; but if you will have them, 
take the kind that strikes your fancy. So far as useful qualities are con- 
cerned (and the Games are good layers), one variety is just as good as 
another; and as for scratching, fighting and "raising cain generally" one 
variety is just as bad as another, if not worse. 
BANTAMS. 
The cut of miniature fowls with drooping wings and exaggerated tail 
represents a pair of Japanese Bantams. They 
have pure white plumage (except the wonderful 
tail, which is black), single combs, and short, 
bright yellow legs. The standard weight for 
cocks is twenty-eight 
ounces ; for hens, twen- 
ty-four ounces. The i 
next illustration is of a | 
pair of Golden Sebright * 
Bantams. Their plum- 
age is a rich golden yellow, each feather very 
evenly laced with a narrow edging of black; 
rose combs, and slaty-blue legs ; weight same as 
the Japanese Bantams. The Silver Sebright Bantams are like the Golden 





26 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

except that their plumage is white laced with black. There are several 
other varieties of Bantams, all handsome and equally worthy of mention, 
but lack of space prevents particular mention of each variety. 

What good are these miniature fowls? Well, they are generally kept 
for pets, and for show purposes, but they have their useful qualities, too. 
They are good layers, and as they can be kept in small houses and runs, 
can be kept by many who, from lack of room and the nearness of neigh- 
bors, are deterred from keeping larger fowls. On this subject the Poultry 
World very sensibly says : "No neater, prettier, or more attractive pets 
can be given to the little ones of the household to care for than Ban- 
tams; for their small size, handsome plumage, and proud ways make 
them objects of unfailing interest. Bantams are hardy, and many an 
enterprising boy has put a number of stray dollars in his pockets from 
the sale of his surplus stock — money which he prized more, and which 
did him more good than that not earned by his own exertions. Show 
us the boy who is f jnd of his pet Bantams," and takes good care of them, 
rearing the young successfully year after year, and we can then point 
him out as one who will be successful as a stock breeder in future years, 
whether he breeds poultry or larger stock." 

OTHER BREEDS. 

There are many other breeds of fowls besides those mentioned in this 
book, but those herein mentioned are at present those that are most 
worthy of notice in a work like this. The "American Standard of Ex- 
cellence," a copyrighted book published by the American Poultry 
Association, minutely describes all the standard breeds of fowl's, ducks, 
geese and turkeys, and can be obtained of all publishers of poultry 
papers. The price is one dollar. 

THE BEST BREED. 

"But which is really the best breed?" That depends: If you want 
non-sitters that will produce the greatest number of eggs in a year, take 
the Leghorns or Ham burgs; but if you want non-sitters that will lay 
good-sized eggs, take the Houdans, Black Spanish, Minorcas, or White 
Crested Black Polish. These last mentioned breads do not, as a rule, lay 
as many eggs in the year as the Hamburgs and Leghorns, but their eggs 
make up in size what they lack in number, and the poultry raiser who 
ineDds to supply private customers with fresh eggs will find that it will 
pay better in the long run to keep fowls that lay good-sized eggs. But 
always bear in mind that these non-sitting breeds wjll not bear confine- 
ment to yards as well as those that are heavier and less active. And be- 
cause they are non-sitters don't expect them tojay every day, Sunday 
and all, the year round. They must and will take a rest once in a while. 

For winter layers take the Cochins, Brahmas, or Langshans. These 
breeds will also, if given full range and forced to scratch for part of their 
living, do fairly well at the egg business in summer. For those who 
must keep their fowls confined to yards the year round, the Cochins, 
Brahmas and Langshans have no superiors. For "all the year round" 
layers, there are the Plymouth Rocks, Dominiques, Wyandottes, and 
Javas. For spring chickens, i. e., chickens to sell for broilers, the Ply- 
mouth Rocks head the list; next come the Wyandottes, Dominiques, 
and the Houdans. For large chickens to sell either alive or dressed in 
the fall or winter, the Brahmas, Cochins and Langshans are " the best " 



GEO. H. STAHL, QTJINCY, ILLINOIS. 27 

because the biggest. For the largest capons, mate pure-bred Light 
Brahma hens with Partridge Cochin cocks. The cockerels from this 
cross make the largest capons. The pullets grow to a great size, and are 
desirable for market, but not to keep. Pure Brahmas, Cochins, Ply : 
mouth Rocks, Langshans, Wyandottes and Java? are good for capons, 
but do not grow to the size of the Brahma-Cochin cross. Of course 
cockerels of any breed can be caponized, but as increased size is one of 
the objects of caponizing, it hardly pays to operate on the smaller breeds. 
There are some people in the world, and some of them live in the 
United States, who have a notion that the fowls of some particular breed 
are much better for table use than anything else that wears feathers, and 
are willing to pay an extra price for the fowls that they fancy ; if your 
market demands fowls of any particular breed, or you get hold of a class 
of private customers who imagine that Dorkings, or Leghorns, or Hou- 
dans, or any other kind of fowl flesh is better than all others, just keep 
the kind that they like and are willing to pay most for. It is my private 
odinion that not one in a thousand ot these particular people could ever 
tell by the taste of a chicken (provided all were equally well-raised and 
well-cooked), whether they wore Houdan, Plymouth, Game, or Brahma 
feathers when alive; but when they are willing to pay extra for what 
they consider the best, don't "argue" with them ; pocket the extra cash, 
and keep your private opinions to yourself, unless you happen to agree 
with them. 

For a general purpose fowl, i. e., for general farm and market fowls for 
those who desire to keep but one breed, and want that one good for • 
pretty much every purpose for which fowls are kept, the Plymouth 
Rocks stand at the head; the Dominiques and Wyandottes come next. 

Poultry raisers who live "down South" will find the Hamburgs, Leg- 
horns, Spanish, Houdans, Rocks, Dominiques, Wyandottes and Javas 
better suited to their climate than the Brahmas and Cochins. 

Village residents, and those who must keep their fowls confined to 
yards the year round, will find the Brahmas, Cochins and Langshans 
the best breeds for them, as they bear confinement better than the breeds 
that are naturally more active. «, 

To sum up on the subject of the "best breed," find out just what kind 
of fowls are most in demand in the market where you expect to sell, and 
then raise the kind that the market calls for. 

THE COST OF KEEPING THE DIFFERENT BREEDS 

Does not vary so much as the breeders of some varieties would have 
us believe. It costs more to grow the large breeds to a layirjg age than 
it does the smaller ones, but after they have reached that age there is 
but little difference in the amount of food necessary to keep hens of 
the different breeds in laying order. 

NEW BREEDS. 
Every few years new breeds, or new varieties of some of the old 
breeds, are brought before the public, and those who introduce them 
usually claim that the new are in all points vasily superior to the old, 
but it will pay you to go slow at first on all new breeds, no matter who 
introduces them. Get a sitting of eggs, or a pair or so of the fowls, and 
try them before you buy more ; then if they prove valuable you can 
increase your stock ; while on the other hand, if they do not come up 
to the mark you won't be much out of pocket. 



28 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

COMMON FOWLS. 

And now I am going to say a well-deserved good word for the com- 
mon fowls. They are of all shapes and colors that fowls ever grow, 
and they are usually neglected, abused, half-starved, and left to shift 
for themselves generally ; but for all that they generally pay their 
way and more too — live and thrive, and bring up big families of 
healthy chickens under the most discouraging circumstances. Our 
common fowls are extremely hardy, good foragers, mature early, are 
good layers, good sitters and excellent mothers; and if you cannot 
afford to start with a stock of pure bred fowls, believe me it will pay 
to start with common fowls. Take the same pains with them that you 
would with a stock of thoroughbreds, and they will respond quickly 
and generously. There is something— a good deal — in blood, but there 
is also an immense deal in care and feed. 

HOW TO IMPROVE COMMON FOWLS. 

If size be your object, select ycur biggest common hens and mate 
them with a rooster of some of the larger breeds; if you desire egg- 
production, select the hens that you know to be the best layers, and 
mate them with roosters of some of the breeds that are noted as layers; 
and for any other special purpose select males from a breed that pos- 
sesses the qualities that you desire. Chickens from these crosses will 
be "half-blood", and much superior to common fowls. The next year 
mate the best of the half blood pullets to pure-bred cocks, and keep 
, the best of the pullets from this cross for breeding stock the third year. 
In this way, always keeping your best hens and pullets each year, and 
using only thoroughbred cocks, you will in a few years have a flock of 
fowls that for all practical purposes will be just as good as though you 
had started out with thoroughbreds. 

If you have not the cash to buy pure-bred cocks to mate with hens 
to begin with, don't think that you can do nothing towards improving 
your common fowls. Common fowls can be greatly improved in point 
of size by always selecting the largest and best to "keep over" to breed 
from ; and the laying qualities can be improved by always setting only 
the eggs from the hens that are known to be the best layers. On 
some farms where this course has been steadily followed year after 
year, the fowls have greatly increased in size, and rival the Leg- 
horns and Hamburgs in egg-production. In one case that came 
under my observation, in five years from the time the improving 
process commenced the average egg product from the hens had 
increased one-third, and the average weight of the fowls had 
increased in about the same proportion. In all that time no 
"fresh blood" was introduced into the flock; the improvement was 
wholly due to food, care, and the selection of the best each year. Of 
course the same results could have been reached in two years by the 
use of thoroughbred roosters; but the woman who owned those hens 
didn't have the thoroughbred roosters, or yet the money to buy them, 
so she went ahead and did the best she could with such fowls as she 
had, and her best was very good indeed. It is a fact that the third 
winter after she began her work of improvement her hens laid more 
eggs than any other flock in the neighborhood; and there were some 
thoroughbred flocks among her neighbors'. 

Now you needn't try to twist this into an argument or anything else 
in favor of common fowls over the improved varieties, for it isn't any- 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINOY, ILLINOIS. 29 

thing of the kind. I believe in improved varieties of fowls, believe 
that thoroughbred and very high grade fowls will pay the farmer and 
market poultry raiser better than common fowls, just as surely as the 
thoroughbred and grade Jersey or Holstein cow will pay the farmer 
and dairyman better than a common cow; but I also believe that there 
are many, very many, who have read so much of the book that has 
been written about starting with "the best" that they really believe it 
will not pay to start until they have money enough to buy a flock of 
high-priced thoroughbred fowls, and I am trying to show them that it 
will pay to start with "just common fowls," and improve the flock as 
they go along. That's all. 




CHAPTER III. 

ABOUT HOUSES, YARDS, Etc. 

In building a poultry house the main things to be considered are 
plenty of room, warmth, good drainage, light, ventilation, and conve- 
nience. These things secured, it does not matter, so far as the hens 
are concerned, what the house "looks like" on the outside or inside. 

The size of the house must be determined by the number of fowls 
to be kept through the winter. Most poultry houses are too email for 
the number of fowls kept. In localities where the fowls must be con- 
fined to the house the greater part of the time during the winter, the 
poultry house should contain from three to three and one-half square 
feet of floor room for each fowl ; and besides this, and connected with 
the house, there should be a shed of some sort where the fowls can 
scratch and loaf during the days when the weather is such that they 
cannot take the necessary exercise in the open air. "When the poultry 
house is so situated that the fowls can have the run of the barn yard 
and cattle sheds, the poultry shed will not be necessary. I know that 
much has been written against allowing fowls to run in barn yards and 
scratch in manure piles but all the same hens take to such places as 
naturally as ducks take to water, and I have never yet seen any sick- 
ness that resulted from allowing fowls to run in well-drained, well- 
littered barn yards and cattle sheds. 

Concerning warmth in poultry houses, we speak of "warm poultry 
houses" because it is a convenient mode of expression, but we all 
know that a building cannot be warm in itself; the heat must come 
from the sun's rays, from a fire, from the interior of the earth, or by 
crowding many fowls into a small close house. The last-named method 
is particularly objectionable because unhealthy. A large number of 
fowls kept in a small, tipht room will generate heat enough to raise the 
temperature of the room above the freezing point when it is many de- 
grees below zero outside, but the ah so warmed will be almost rank 
poison, and the fowls nearly stifled. Fowls kept in such close quarters 
will not long remain healthy, and unhealthy fowls don't pay. 

Generally speaking, it does not pay to warm a poultry house by the 
use of fuel, except for raising early chickens and ducks; the expense 
and trouble of keeping up fires eats up a good share of the profits of 
poultry raising. And besides, fowls that are kept in houses warmed 
by fires soon become very sensitive to cold, take cold upon exposure to 
the outer air, and then roup and kindred diseases follow. Still there are 
cases where it may pay the poultry raiser to keep a fire in the poultry 
house in severe weather ; then the question is whether to use wood or 
coal. _ A good coal stove needs but little attention, but with a coal fire 
the air cannot be kept so pure as when wood is used. If coal must be 
U6ed it is better to have the chimney at one end of the room where 
the fowls are kept, the stove in a small room at the other end of the 
building, and utilize the heat by means of hot air pipes or flues passing 



32 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

through the room to be warmed, and to the chimney. In warming a 
poultry house by burning wood in a common wood stove, the great 
drawback is the almost constant attendance required in order to keep 
a tolerably even temperature. The fire must be replenished often 
during the night as well as during the day ; and thi3 getting up in the 
middle of the night, with the thermometer way below nothing, to fill 
up the hen-house etove, is no fun, as we know by cold experience. 
Then, if ever, one laments having embarked in the poultry business. 
And then there is always the danger of fire. The best, and the safe 
way to keep a wood fire in a poultry house is in a brick stove with 
close fitting iron doors— one small door in one side near the bottom 
for convenience in building a fire and removing ashes, and a large 
round door, or trap, in the top, where large "chunks" and "knots" of 
wood, too large to be used anywhere else, and too tough to be profit- 
ably worked up, can be put in. Such a stove needs to be replenished 
but twice a day, as when closed up the wood burns slowly, and the 
bricks hold heat a long time. With a brick stove, and proper ventila- 
tion, an almost uniform temperature can be kept night and day. Any 
mason can build such a stove, and plain iron doors and fittings can be 
obtained at any foundry, or ordered through any hardware dealer. 

Probably the cheapest and best method of using artificial heat in 
large poultry houses is by the use of a green-house boiler and hot 
water pipes. Any one desiring full particulars in regard to fitting up 
with either steam or hot water apparatus can obtain them, together 
with an estimate of expense, by applying to plumbers or steam-fitters. 

But after all, what the majority of poultry raisers want to know is, 
how to build a poultry house so that it will be comfortable enough 
inside without a fire when the mercury is ten, twenty or more degrees 
below zero outside. We can do this by utilizing the sun's rays, and 
the heat from the interior of the earth. By building a house into a 
south side hill where it will be surrounded on three sides by earth, 
and putting windows in the south side, a comfortable, uniform temper- 
ature can be secured, regardless of the downward treaks of the mercury 
outside. When there is no side hill handy the poultry raiser can se- 
cure warmth in his fowl house from the radiation of the earth's heat, 
by "banking" the house so thick that the frost cannot penetrate 
through, or by building the walls of the house of sod. When the em- 
bankment or the sod walls are so thick that the frost cannot get 
through, such houses are just as comfortable as the side hill houses, 
and in them fowls will be comfortable right through the fiercest bliz- 
zard that ever blew in the Northwest. Where winters are not so 
severe as in the extreme north and northwestern parts of our country, 
sufficient warmth may be secured by the use of building paper, or by 
building double walls and filling the space between with sawdust, 
chaff, or spent tan bark. 

The ground where the poultry house stands should be well drained; 
if not so naturally then it should be done artificially, for a damp poul- 
try house is a decidedly unhealthy place for fowls. A good share of 
the disease and loss in some poultry flocks might be directly traced to 
the damp houses. 

The poultry house should be light, but don't overdo the window 
business, and make the south side about all glaes, as some misguided 
poultry writers recommend. Too much glass is as bad as not enough. 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 33 

On sunny days in winter these houses with "nearly all glass" fronts 
will be very warm — sometimes too warm for comfort, in the middle of 
the day, but as soon as the sun gets around so it does not shine in, the 
heat is radiated very fast, so that before morning tbe room is very 
cold. Have no more glass in the south side of your poultry house than 
you would in the south side of a dwelling house of same size; and have 
shutters to close over the windows on winter nights; they will prevent 
such rapid loss of heat and so secure a uniform temperature at night. 
And the same shutters that prevent loss of heat in cold weather will 
keep out the hot rays of the summer sun. 

Tne best way to ventilate a poultry house is to have a box shaft run 
from within a foot of the floor out two or three feet above the roof. 
There should be two of these ventilators, 6x8, in a house where 100 
fowls are kept. There should be a slide in the bottom of each venti- 
lator, so that they may be partly closed in extreme cold weather; and 
a top above the ventilator outside to keep out snow and rain. 

In regard to convenience, every poultry keeper must decide for him- 
self; I will only suggest that where any considerable number of fowls 
are kept, a passage-way along the rear, or through the center of the 
house, so arranged that the fowls can be fed and watered, and the eggs 
gathered without going in among the fowls, is a convenient arrange- 
ment. In this passage way feed can be stored, kerosene, oyster shells, 
disinfectants, tools, and other things needed for the fowls, and for use 
in and about the poultry house, can be stored. And the nest boxes 
can be so arranged that when a hen takes a notion to sit, and you take 
a notion to allow it, the box can be turned to face into the alley, and 
thus secure the sitter from annoyance by the other hens. A stove for 
cooking food could also be put up in this alley. 

COST OF POULTRY HOUSES. 

"How much will it cost to build a poultry house for 100 hens, if one 
does the work himself?" is one of the questions I am often asked. 
That depends very much upon the price of lumber in your locality. 
I know of one 100-hen house that was built in Massachusetts, where 
lumber and wages are high, at a cost of some few cents less than $100 
for material and carpenter's wages. Another Massachusetts poultry 
keeper put up a house that would accommodate 500 hens at a cost of 
$400. He did nearly all the work himself. While in Ohio, we had 
several poultry houses that would accommodate 50 fowls apiece, put 
up for a little less than $30.00 each. All work was hired. One of my 
friends " out west" built a poultry house for 100 hens at a cost of less 
than $10 00 for material. All that he bought was a few rough boards, 
nails, glass and window sash. The rest of the house was made of 
rough poles, sods and straw, and he did the work himself. The house 
didn't " handsome much ", but it was extremely comfortable, and his 
hens laid right through an extremely cold winter. Hens don't care 
for looks, but they do like to be comfortable, and they won't lay in 
winter unless they are so. 

SOME PLANS FOR POULTRY HOUSES. 

The full page illustration (Fig. 1, page 30) shows the elevation of a 
poultry house that is turned around "hind side before," and has the 
windows in the lower part, which should face the south — an arrange- 
ment which has proved very satisfactory to the poultry raisers who 



34 



THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK, 



have tried it. A house like this can be built any desired length, and 
divided into different sized rooms to suit the convenience of the owner. 
It should be six feet high in front, and ten or twelve at the rear, ac- 
cording to the width. A passage-way three feet wide extends the 
whole length of the building. The windows are hung with weights, 
and by a simple arrangement of cords and pulleys can be raised or 
lowered by pulling a cord in the alley. The space over the passage- 
way in one house like this was used for storing chicken coops when 
not in use. In another it was finished with a tight floor and used as a 
roosting place, the fowls "climbing to rest" by means of a ladder which 
will be described farther on. In still another there was a pile of re- 
fuse hay, and a few nest boxes scattered in the "loft," and how the 
hens did like to lay up there. 




Fig. 2. 



Fig. 2 shows a good house for one hundred fowls. It is 50x12 feet, 
which gives five rooms 10x12 feet, four of which can be used for fowls, 
while the fifth can be used for storing food, etc., sitting hens in season, 
and if desired a stove for cooking food can be set up in this room. In 
case a stove is desired, have a chimney in the center. There is no 
window in this center room, but it is sufficiently light, for the partitions 
are of wire netting down to within two feet of the floor. Still if 
"more light" is desired, a window could be put in the upper half of the 
door. Tne house is set on a stone foundation, and in this foundation 
openings are left for the fowls. One of the openings is in the west end 
and does not show in the illustration. Ventilation is secured by the 
two box ventilators. Roosts and nests arranged to suit the fancy of 
the owner. For the use of this cut we are indebted to the Ohio Farmer. 

Fig. 3 shows a neat little poultry house, twenty feet long, eight feet 
wide on the ground, six feet high in the rear, and six and a half feet 
in the roof. It is built of matched and dressed lumber, battened and 
painted. The frame is 3x4 joist, lathed and filled in with saw-dust on 
all sides and roof, then plastered; gravel bottom; three windows of 
twelve lights 9x13, and a small window in upper half of door to admit 
the morning light. The nests are on the ground, under the windows. 
This house proved a success in a severe winter, the thermometer indi- 



GEO. H. STASL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 



35 



eating only 3° below freezing, when it was 26° below zero outside. If I 
were going to build after this style, would double boaid with building 
paper between instead of the lath and plaster, and for convenience I 
would place the nests under the roosting platforms at the back side of 
the house, and have openings for the fowls under the windows. A 
house like this can be extended to any desired lengih. No ventilators 
are shown in the cut, but there should be the box ventilators put in. 

The following description of a poultry house was taken from the 
Ohio Farmer, and was written by A. C. Pepoon, an Ohio poultryman, 
who planned it for one hundred Brown Leghorns: Building stands 
east and wett, so as to face the south ; sixty feet long, twenty-five feet 
wide ; foundation of brick or cobble stone, 2 feet above ground and 
one foot in the ground; roof one-third pitch, making the building ten 
feet three inches high in the center ; door in each end, and over the 
doors a small door for ventilation. In the south half of the roof put 
at least ten windows, one 
half at peak, with the 
others at or near the 
eaves. The upper might 
be put in fiat with the 
roof.and the lower would 
be better as dormer win- 
dows, and riseTrom the 
foundation, but this 
would make the cost con- 
siderable more than to 
put them in with the 
pitch of the roof. The 
ends and roof should be 
made double, with at 

least a two-inch air space, and also a sheathing of tarred paper be- 
tween. Of course this makes the cost much more, but it will pay in 
the end ; the fowls will not feel the sudden changes of temperature in 
winter, and unless there is long continued cold weather, the tempera- 
ture of the air in the building will not go down to, or much below, 
freezing. The outside of building should be banked up all around as 
high as the foundation wall. To do this I would draw dirt and grade 
it up and make it permanent. Put a ventilator in the center, extend- 
ing at least four feet above the roof and two feet below into the build- 
ing ; it should be sixteen inches square, and over the top and about 
four inches above a roof or cover, 6o as to keep out the snow and rain. 
This ventilator should be kept open all the time, and the end ventila- 
tors over the doors only opened when necessary. The ventilator in 
the center can be used for a chimney by running a stove pipe up 
through the center and having a galvanized sheet iron top above the 
ventilator. The doors should be double and fit tight. 

Fig. 4 shows another man's (S. L. Roberts of Nebraska) notions of a 
house for Brown Leghorns. Mr. Boberts says: I have a superb pen of 
Brown Leghorns, with extra fine, large combs, and although our ther- 
mometers registered 15° below, yet my fowls all came through the 
frosts of winter untouched. I have two buildings exactly alike, each 
eight feet wide, sixteen feet long, eight feet to top of square in front 
and four feet behind. These pens stand ten feet apart, with a roosting 




36 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

cojp between. The roobtmg coop is four ftet by ten feet, two feet high 
in front, and one foot high behind, with a two-foot pit or cellar under 
it, with roosts on a level with the ground. Two trunk ventilators run 




Fig. L 



down within six inches of the ground, with a division in the middle. 
This coop answers for both pens. The cost is trifling, three twelve-inch 
boards ten feet long and the roof completes the building. A hole cut 
into this from each pen and it is finished. I can heartily recommend 

this roosting coop to 
all breeders of Leg- 
horns for winter. 
The advantages are 
many. It is warm 
in winter and cool 
in summer; and it is 
difficult for night 
prowlers to secure 
their booty. By this 
plan your poultry 
house can be kept 
clean, you will have 
healthy birds and 
plenty of eggs. You 
can close it up when 
you give the morn- 
ing meal. Fowls will 
Fi 9- 5 - have no chance to 

learn the habit of loafing on the roosts half of the day. The objection 
to glass fronts is overcome, as the cold does not reach them, and no 
one need pity me when he sees one hundred and fifty panes of 10x12 
glass in a house eight feet by sixteen feet. No fancier should have his 
fowls roosting in the daily quarters when it is so easily remedied with 




GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 



37 



so many advantages. The best and cheapest material to use fcr build- 
ing is twelve-inch hemlock flooring tongued and grooved, which costs 
from $16 to $18 per M, according to location. This used as siding should 
be put on up and down. It also makes a good warm roof, covered with 






Fig. 6. 

two-ply tarred felt. I have the roof and north end of pens covered 
with three-ply tarred felt, the balance with the roosting coop is cov- 
ered with two-ply felt. Inside of the pens everything is neat and 
clean, and the air is fresh and sweet, thanks to the roosting coop and 
trunk ventilators. 

Fig. 5 shows a neat-looking poultry house arranged for the keeping 
of several different breeds, 



r 



though of course itwiy answer 
just as well where only one 
breed is kept. The middle room 
is used tor a store room, and is 
furnished with a stove for cook- 
ing feed. 

Fig. 6 shows the elevation, 
and Fig. 7 the ground plan of 
a poultry house 15x18 feet, that 
will meet the requirements of 
the poultry raiser who desires 
to winter from fifty to seventy- 
five fowls. A represents the 
laying room; B, the roosting 
room; C, the room for feed and 
sitting hens, and D a bin for grain. The nest boxes shown in the par- 
tition between the laying and sitting rooms are intended to slide back 
and forth. A house like this can be built any desiied length, and a 






THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 



continuous passage-way made by charging the arrangement of the 
roosts. Instead of having so much glass in the front as shown in the 
cut, I would have two fair-sized windows, and then a small four-light 
window in the upper half of each door. 




Fig. 8 shows the elevation, and Fig. 9 the ground plan of a house for 
the farmer who desires to winter a good-sized flock of hens, and have 
plenty of room for raising early chickens. D represents the doors; P, 
the passage-way; W, the windows; N, the nests; R, roosts, and B the 
dusting boxes. 

The openings for the fowls should be under the windows; and there 
should be a, box ventilator in the main building, also one in the wing. 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 39 

Fig. 10 shows the elevation (minus the ventilators) of a very con- 
venient poultry house •which can be built ten or twelve feet wide, and 
any desired length. 




Fig. 10. 



Figs. 11 and 12 show the ground and end view of the inside arrange- 
ments of this house. 

One of the most comfortable and generally satisfactory poultry 
houses that we ever owned was one-half of a barn cellar. The barn 
was built on the south side of a hill, and the cellar walls were of stone. 



t 


PASSAGE — 2 FEET WIDE. 




jfoosr§WEsT^ 


/!0OST&NEST3\~' 


/?oosrfHEsrs\~ 


/fOOSTSNCSTs\" 


I 
















giEzr-- 






Figs. 11 and 1%. 

The inside of the half that was used for a poultry house was finished 
off with matched boards. There were two large windows in the front, 
with board shutters to close over them winter nights. A box ventila- 
tor ran up through the barn floor into the room above. A door opened 
into the manure cellar, and in cold weather the fowls spent the greater 
part of the time during daylight scratching in the manure piles, and 



40 



THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 



scratching and loafing in the barnyard and sheds. When the mercury 
was down to 22° below zero outside, it was above the freezing point in 
that cellar. 

Our next illustration, Fig. 13, shows a neat little poultry house with 
roof sloping nearly to the ground back, while the front is nearly all 
glass, with board shutters to cover it when necessary. The windows 
are protested inside by wire netting. 

Another very satisfactory house in which we wintered 100 hens, was 
forty-eight feet long, eight feet wide, seven and one-half feet high in 
front, and four and one-half in rear. Shed roof shingled. South side 
and east end double boarded, and banked up to the bottom of the 
windows, leaving a passage-way to the door in east end, and also one 
for the fowls. On the north side and west end it was banked to the 

eaves. Four windows 
in the south side, with 
broad shutters. Two 
box ventilators ex- 
tending up through 
the roof. For inside 
arrangements we had 
perchesenough putup 
along the north side 
and west end to acco- 
mmodate the fowls, a 
wide platform under 
the perches, and nest 
boxes under the plat- 
form. A dusting box 
in front of each win- 
dow. The house was 
divided into four rooms by means of three lath partitions, each parti- 
tion having a lath door. • 

One of the cheapest and most comfortable poultry houses that I ever 
saw was made of rough posts, poles, a few rough boards, and straw, 
and this is how it was done : A stout frame-work was made of the 
posts and poles, and then the straw was stacked several feet deep all 
over and around it, leaving only the south side open. The rough 
boards were used to partition off a roosting and laying room at the 
back side of the immense shed. There was not a pane of glass in this 
"poultry house," and the only cash outlay was for the few boards, nails 
and spikes ; but it was a comfortable place for poultry, and the hens 
that were wintered there laid right along regardless of the outside 
weather, while the next neighbor who burned his straw stack to "get 
it out of the way," and let.his fowls roost anywhere they could find a 
place because he couldn't afford to build a poultry house," bought eggs 
for home consumption. 

Finally, concerning plans for poultry houses, I will say that we have 
not given many because we do not think it necessary, A dozen plans 
such as we have given, for plain, practical buildings of moderate cott 
— 3uch as the vast majority of farmers and market poultry raisers want, 
and which any man who is commonly handy with tools, and who 
possesses an average amount of good judgment, can put up with but 
little assistance from a regular carpenter, are better than a book full of 




Fig. IS. 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 41 

plans of elaborate and costly buildings. Poultry raisers who desire 
something different from the houses we have shown and described, 
can easily enlarge and modify the plans to suit their individual needs 
or fancy ; and if the hints we have given in regard to plenty of room, 
light, warmth, ventilation, etc., are acted upon the houses will doubt- 
less be satisfactory. On many farms there are old buildings, which 
can, by heeding the afore-mentioned hints, be "made over" into con- 
venient, comfortable poultry houses, and that too at small cost outside 
of the labor. 

FLOORS IN POULTRY HOUSES. 

Whether to have floors in poultry houses or not, is a question that 
has caused a good deal of discussion among poultry raisers and writers, 
but after all that has been said and written for and against, it is a 
question that each one must decide for himself. When the ground lo- 
cation of the house is very dry and well drained a board floor is not 
necessary ; but where there is danger from dampness it is better to 
have a floor, either of plank or cement. Poultry house floors should 
always be kept covered with dry earth four or five inches thick. 




INSIDE FIXTURES. 
We shall not say much about inside fixtures for poultry houses, sim- 
ply because it is not necessary. The main things are to have roosts 
and nests enough to accommodate the number of fowls kept, feed and 
water vessels, and when the roosts are in the higher part of the build- 
ing, some feet from the floor, ladders or steps for the fowls to go up 
and down on. The usual plan in arranging the inside fixtures, is to 
have a broad platform under the perches to catch the droppings, the 
nests under the platforms, and the feed and water dishes wherever 
convenient. Where there is a passage-way running the length of the 
house, the roosts, nests and feed and water fixtures can be arranged as 
shown in Fig. 12. Some poultry keepers, in order to make the most 
of the floor space, put the nest boxes on a platform afoot or more from 
the floor, another platform over the nests, and the roosting perches 
above. When this arrangement, or any other, is made for having the 
roosts high, steps like Fig. 14, or a ladder like Fig. 15, should be made 
for heavy fowls are often lamed or otherwise injured, and sometimes 



42 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

killed outright, by jumping from high perches. Perches for the heavy 
breeds of fowls should never be more than eighteen inches from the 
floor unless a ladder of some kind is provided. The ladder shown by 
Fig. 15 is simply a wide board with thick cleats nailed on at regular 
intervals. 

The perches should be either flat or half round on top, and broad 
enough to enable the fowls to sit on them comfortably. The poultry 
raiser who compels his fowls to roost on a small round pole, or on a 
narrow flat strip of board, with sharp edges, ought to be fined and im- 
prisoned for cruelty to animals, and would be if I could have my way 
about it. The perches should all be on the same level, for if one is 
higher than the rest the fowls are apt to crowd on to that and leave 
the others. Perches, and in fact all inside fixtures of fowl houses, 
should be made so that they can be easily moved and cleaned. 

NESTS. 
It really makes no difference what you use for nest boxes, provided 
they are movable, do not take up too much room, are fixed so that the 
hens can get in and out easily, and are kept free from lice. Nail kegs, 
with a hole in one side, as shown by Fig. 16, 
make capital nests. When nests like this are 
used for the large breeds, a block of wood or 
something should be placed on the floor to en- 
able the hens to get in and out easily, for be it 
known that the majority of hens of the large 
breeds can't or won't get into a nest a foot from 
the floor unless they can do so without any 
effort at flying. Small or medium sized hens 
can easily hop up into such nests, but hens 
that weigh seven or eight pounds don't find 
it easy work, and after a few attempts give up. 
And these nail keg nests, or any other deep 
nests.' should always, especially for the large 
breeds, be kept nearly full of nesting, so that 
the hens will not be obliged to jump down onto 
the eggs in the nest. Bottomless boxes, six- 
teen or eighteen inches square, made of light 
boards, and with a strip four or five inches wide nailed across the front 
at the bottom to keep the nesting in place, make good nests. They are 
light, easy to move, easy to keep clean, and can be putalmost anywhere 
you want them, indoors or out. When these nest boxes are put under 
the platform beneath the roost3, with the open side facing the wall, a 
portion of the back of the box should be hinged on with leather straps; 
then the eggs can be gathered without the bother of either reaching 
around the box or turning it around. And when the boxes are thus 
fixed, several of them can be placed side by side and close together, 
under the platform, only leaving sufficient room at each end of the 
row, and between the boxes and side of the house for the hens to pass 
in and out. Generally speakin?, this plan of arranging these nest boxes 
is the best that can be devised; the boxes being under the platform, the 
fowls cannot loaf on top of them, as some fowls always Feem "possessed" 
to do, and being turned around "hind side before," and placed close to- 
gether, the nests are quite dark inside, and afford what most hens evi- 




GEO H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 



43 




dently desire— a quiet, secluded place in which to deposit their eggs. 
When all the floor space is needed for the fowls, and conpequently 
the nest boxes must be placed on a platform raised from the floor, they 
should not be placed close together with the open side facing out, but 
should beset on the pl.tform sideways, with room enough between for 

the hens to pass in 
and out. But if you 
will have the open 
side of the nest face 
out, have the platform 
some inches wider 
than the boxes, so 
that the hens can hop 
on to the platform, 
and then step into the 
nest. 

_-i35^ : - - . -:- - • ' ' '"^xptil Fig. 17 shows a sort 

— i^ggr^ ;" : ; ;'-""_-" fill ;-.:-.: §| : '\ of combination nest 

_: _-■ __.._^zz=-^V- box, which makes the 

~ " nest dark inside, and 

Ftg - 17 - which will doubtless 

give satisfaction when there is plenty of floor space. These boxes 

could be arranged on a platform, but the platform would have to be 

pretty wide. 

But whatever kind of nests you have, have enough of them; other- 
wise several hens will crowd into one nest, and scold, fight and break 
eggs, and carry on generally in a way that will make poultry raising 
seem a vain mockery. Six nests are none too many for twenty-five 
hens. Sometimes, even when 
there is a nest apiece in the 
house, several hens will insist 
upon using the same nest at the 
same time. At one time we had 
three Plymouth Rock hens that 
would all crowd into one par- 
ticular nest. I had more nests 
made, but not one of the per- 
verse three would use them. 
They would walk around the 
new boxes, and into them, and 
calmly return to the same old 
box. I kept putting in new 
nests of different kinds until 
there was no more room, but 
still the quarreling went on ; 
then I took out the favorite 
nest, and those sinful hens 

went to quarreling over the Fig ^ ig- 

nextone. Ionly conquered by 

separating the combatants. Nowadays, if hens of mine were to carry 
on in such a sinful manner I should build some nests like Fig. 18. 
When the hen goes into] the nest box shown at the back, the door 
in the front closes, and keeps other hens from intruding. When the 





44 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

hen gets through and steps out of the nest, the door opens and she is 
free. The round hole shown at the back is for convenience in remov- 
ing the eggs. 

OTHER INSIDE FIXTURES. 

Feeding troughs or boxes and drinking vessels of some kind are i 
necessity in every well-regulated poultry house. The best are very 
simple and cheap. Fig. 19 shows a good-looking, serviceable trough 
for either food or water — one 
that can be cheaply and quick- 
ly made. The only objection 
to this trough is that fowls will 
sometimes forget their "man- 
ners" and put their feet in it; 
Fi 9> 19. but this can be overcome by 

hinging on a slat cover, or by making it like Fig. 20. A good recepta- 
cle for food and drink can be made by taking a nail keg, driving down 
the hoops and securing them firmly with nails; then with an auger and 
knife remove a section of every other stave four or five inches from 
the bottom. In this "openwork" 
keg put the food, and while the 
hens can get at the food easily, 
they cannot get in and waste it | 
by tramping around in it. These 
kegs can be used for watering 
fowls by placing a dish of wa- !_ 
ter inside. Fig. 21 shows how flfc^,^ 
a common wooden pail can be ; ^fiflpS^ 
fixed for a convenient drinking 
vessel. Another handy feed 
vesselis just an old tin pan suspended by three cords or wires just high 
enough from the floor so that the fowls can reach the food easily. For 
a water vessel, suspend a tight pan the same way, fill an empty fruit 
can with water and quickly invent in the pan. The top of the fruit can 
should first be cut off evenly all around and one or two small holes be 
punched in the sides about half an inch from 
the top: then when the can is filled and in- 
1 verted in the pan, the water will run out un- 
til it gets to the top of the holes, and remain 
at that depth as long as there is water left in 
the can, for when the water is above the holes 
they admit no air, but when, by the fowls 
drinking, the water in the pan is lowered be- 
low the holes, more water will run out of the 
can until the holes are again covered. But, 
after all, there is no drinking vessel for grown 
fowls that suits me quite so well as a gallon, 
stoneware milk crock. They won't rust out, and they are the easiest 
to keep clean of any drinking vessels that I ever tried, and I have 
tried a good many "drinking fountains." 

Besides the feed and water vessels, you need something to hold a 
supply of crushed oyster shells, gravel, charcoal, etc., and for this pur* 




Fig. 20. 




Fig. si. 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUIXCY, ILLINOIS. 



45 



pose I know of nothing cheaper and handier than a box made like Fig. 
22, and hung to the side of the building. 

Your fowls also need a dusting box, especially in cold weather. This 
is just a frame a foot deep, and three or four feet square (or of any de- 
sired length and width), set on the floor of the poultry house in such 




Fig. «. Fig. 23. 

a position that the sun will shine in it in midday, and filled two thirds 
full with a mixture of two-thirds dry road dust, and one-third perfectly 
dry wood or coal ashes. 

YARDS AND FENCES. 

Every poultry raiser should give his fowls as much range as possible- 
Whenever practicable, let your fowls range over the whole farm except- 
ing the dooryard; at other times give 
them as large a yard as you can afford 
to. There is not the slightest danger of 
giving them too large a yard. 

Galvanized wire netting makes a 
very handsome and durable fence. It 
can be obtained in ariy width from 
eighteen inches up io six feet, and only 
costs about a cent a square foot when 
taken in full rolls. Inputting up a net- 
ting fence, the netting should be tightly 
stretched, and with staples made for the 
purpose, fastened securely to posts set 
firmly in the ground some 8 or 10 feet 
apart. A very good fence, which can in 
most places be put up a little cheaper 
than the netting, is made of plastering 
lath, with a wide board at the bottom. 
Fig. 23 shows the mode of construction. 

The height of the fence must be de- 
termined by the breed. One length of 
lath, with a ten or twelve inch board at 
the bottom, will be high enough to con- Fig.u. 

fine any of the large breeds. For the smaller breeds a lath fence can 
be built like Fig. 24, with the exception of the bottom board, which 




46 



THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 



should bewider and come to the ground, as shown in Fig. 23. Putting 
on two rows of the lath, and the wide board at the bottom, makes the 
fence good eight feet high. 

When a fence that can be easily moved is required, make fence with- 
out poBts, as shown by Fig. 25, only have a wide board at the bottom, 
and nail the lath directly on that. This makes a fence about five feet 
high, and one that is difficult for the fowls to fly over. This fence was 
invented by Waldo F. Brown, and he enumerates its advantages as 




follows: "1st. Its cheapness; material costing about fifty-five cents a 
rod. 2d. Nearly all the work of making it can be done under cover 
in stormy weather, and the fence can be set up when the ground is 
frozen so hard that it would be impossible to dig post-holes. 3rd. It 
can be easily moved from one place to another." 

To prevent this fence from blowing over in a gale, Mr. Brown says: 
"Drive a short stake at each pair of trusses and drive a nail through 
the brace-board into it. Most of these stakes need not be more than 
a foot above ground when driven, but occasionally a stake should come 
up to the top of the truss." The panels of this fence are eight feet 
long, the trusses three and one-half feet high. 




CHAPTER IV. 

EGGS IN WINTER.-HOW TO GET THEH. 

If you want to "raise" eggs to sell in winter, -when prices are high, 
you must keep hens of the right age to lay, give them a comfortable 
house, and the right kind of food and care. Generally speaking, it 
takes about three months for hens to complete the annual process of 
shedding their old feathers and growing new ones, and as hens lay but 
few, if any, eggs during their moulting period, because the food and force 
that would otherwise go to egg-production goes to grow new feathers, 
hens that begin to moult late in the fall should not be kept for winter 
layers. Dispose of such hens as soon as they cease to pay their way in 
eggs, before they get to the pin-feathery stage of the moulting period. 
The hens to "keep over" are the ones that begin to moult in August. If 
healthy and well-cared for, these hens will pass through the moult all 
right, begin to lay in November and keep it up through the winter, and, 
with short intervals of rest, through the succeeding spring, summer and 
early fall; then they will be among the late-moulting hens, and should 
be disposed of. As a rule, hens moult later each succeeding year of their 
lives, and the poultrv raiser whose chief object in keeping hens is to 
produce eggs for market, will not find it profitable to keep hens through 
the third winter. 

But the stock intended for winter layers must not be all hens in their 
second year; at least half the flock should be pullets ; and they should 
be hatched early enough in the season to reach the usual laying age of 
their breed or strain about the first of October. Then, if you house and 
otherwise care for them properly, they will, with occasional short inter- 
vals of rest, lay along until midsummer, when they will begin the annual 
moult. About that time the price of eggs usually begins to go up, but 
your old hens, which will not moult until later, will keep onlaying until 
just about the time your spring pullets begin to lay ; and by the time 
the spring pullets have laid out the first litter, and are taking a breath- 
ing spell, the hens that began their moult in midsummer, will be ready 
to begin business. By managing this way, each year keeping enough of 
the best pullets to take the place of the old hens, that must be disposed 
of because no longer profitable to keep for layers, you can keep up your 
stock, and have eggs "all the year round;" but the "heft" of the eggs will 
be produced when the prices are the highest. 

WHEN TO HATCH PULLETS FOR WINTER LAYERS. 

As a rule, Brahmas, Cochins and Langshans should be hatched from 

the first of March to the middle of April; Plymouth Rocks, Wyandottes, 

Javas, Dominiques and other medium-sized breeds during April, and the 

smaller breeds in May, and even as late as the middle of June. 

WHY NOT BUY THE PULLETS? 

I am frequently asked: "Would it not be cheaper for the poultry 
raiser, whose main object in the hen business is to "raise" eggs for mar- 
ket, to buy enough pullets each fall to keep up his laying stock, than it 



48 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

would to bother with the hatching and raising them?" Possibly it 
would be cheaper to buy your pullets than it would be to raise them, if 
you could only buy those of the right age that had been raised for lay- 
ers — fed for eggs from the day they were hatched ; but let me tell you 
that not many such pullets are raised, and the men and women who 
raise them want them right at home. The fact is, if you want pullets 
that you can depend upon to commence laying when they reach the 
usual laying age of the breed to which they belong, and to keep it up, 
you must raise them yourself. It makes a "sight" of difference whether 
pullets are well raised from the start nr whether they are left to shift 
for themselves mostly. I have had Light Brahma pullets that were fed 
for eggs from the start that commenced laying a whole month earlier 
than others of the same breed, that were hatched the same day, but 
were raised after the usual fashion on most farms, i. e., they were fed on 
raw corn-meal once or twice a day while running with the hen, and after 
she weaned them were left to take their chances with the older fowls. 
How to feed and care for pullets so that they will begin to lay as early 
in life as it is possible for them to do is told in Chapter VI. 

ABOUT THE FOOD. 

When you have a comfortable poultry house, and a flock of hens and 
pullets of the right age to lay, the next thing is the food and care nec- 
essary to induce said hens and pullets to attend strictly to the business 
of producing eggs. Every morning, from the time when the cold, chilly 
nights and frosty morning* come in the fall until settled warm weather 
comes again in the spring, give your hens a warm breakfast of cooked 
or scalded food. Some folks will probably tell you that cooking food 
and feeding it warm to poultry is all nonsense anyway, that fowls and 
birds in the wild state don't ever have warm or cooked food, and yet 
live and thrive ; but if they do make such remarks just tell them, as I 
often have, that you don't care a cent what fowls in the wild state live 
on, or whether they take it hot or cold— that you are not keeping 
fowls in a wild state, but in a domesticated state ; and that you are keep- 
ing them for profit, and propose to feed them so as to make them pay, 
and that "times" have changed, anyhow. If that does not settle them 
assume a dreamy, abstracted expression, and ask about how many eggs 
fowls and birds in the wild state lay in winter. 

I said give the breakfast in the morning, and when I say morning I 
mean morning, not the middle of the forenoon. It is queer what singu- 
lar notions some farmers have about the proper time for 'giving the farm 
stock breakfast. They will rush to the barn and stables before breakfast 
and feed the horses, cows, sheep, pigs, everything except the fowls; they 
must wait until after breakfast is over at the house, and then if the 
weather is very cold very likely they must wait another hour before 
their owners get around with the teed pails. But, all the same, the hens 
are expected to lay, and "blessed" if they do not. Morning in cold 
weather comes just about the time the sun gets up, and you should have 
an invariable, unalterable, cist-iron rule to the effect that your hens 
must have their warm breakfast by sunrise at the latest, and it should be 
somebody's business to attend to that very thing. Don't give the same 
kind of cooked food every morning right through the winter. Give a 
variety. Give as much variety as possible. I don't like the same kind 
of breakfast fifty or sixty mornings in succession, and I don't believe 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 49 

hens do either. Anyway, I have noticed that, other conditions being 
equal, the hens that were fed on the greatest variety of cooked food for 
their morning meals, were the ones that laid the most eggs in cold 
weather. One of the reasons why the small flocks kept by some village 
residents lay more eggs in proportion to the number of fowls than the 
larger flocks of large poultry raisers is because they get a greater variety 
of food. These small flocks generally get all the table scraps, and con- 
sequently get about as much variety in their food as their owner has. 
Bits of bread, cheese, meat, cake, pie, doughnuts, all kinds of vegetables 
are served up to the hens. Nothing in the way of food comes amiss. 
But on the farm all such scraps are usually fed to the pigs, while the 
hens, if given a warm breakfast at all, are served with scalded corn- 
meal and wheat bran every morning. Of course, where a large number 
of fowls are kept, the table scraps will not be sufficient to make the 
fowls' breakfast every morning; but if all the scraps are carefully saved 
in something kept for the purpose there will be enough to give an occa- 
sional breakfast that will be liked by the fowls The best way to pre- 
pare these table scraps is to scald (or boil if necessary) enough to soften 
them, and then mix in enough wheat bran to make a stiff, crumbly 
mass. Now, that makes one breakfast a week — perhaps two; it depends 
upon the size of your flock, the size of your family and the saving qual- 
ities of the housekeeper. 

For some of the other breakfasts, boil up the small potatoes, apples, 
turnips, carrots, beets, parsnips, beans, peas, squashes, pumpkins, celery 
tops, sometimes one thing, sometimes another, mash them, and then 
mix up with bran and shorts, and sometimes a little corn-meal. When 
potatoes are used, mix witn bran mostly; for apples and the more watery 
vegetables use about one part each of corn-meal and shorts to two parts 
of bran. A kettleful of this feed can be cooked in the evening, and if 
left on the back of the kitchen stove, or near it, with an old rug or 
blanket over and around it, it will keep warm enough for breakfast. 

Some mornings when you don't have any of this feed or any other on 
hand, just scald "chop" feed with hot water, or hot skim milk, and feed 
it while warm. This "chop" feed is made of equal quantities of corn 
and oats ground together, and then mixed with an equal -quantity of 
wheat bran. This makes a bandy breakfast for Monday morning. 

Don't have any of this cooked food soft and sloppy; mix it thick 
enough to "stand alone." And don't feed too much. Don't even give 
all they can eat. An allowance of a heaping tablespoonful to each fowl 
is enough for one meal. Of course they would eat twice or three times 
as much, but then, after eating all they could hold, they would settle 
down somewhere and keep still until their crops were partly empty at 
least. But, if only partly sati.-fied, they will at once go to scratching 
around in the litter for the grain that I am going to tell you to scatter 
there. 

THE NEXT MEAL-NUMBER OF MEALS. 
Some poultry raisers feed their fowls regularly three times a day, and 
declare that the man who only feeds his twice a day half starves them ; 
while the man who feeds twice a day feels sure that the one who feeds 
three times a day feeds altogether too much for the fowls' good. How - 
many meals ought they to have in winter? Two, and a lunch all the 
time between meals. But that does not mean that you are to keep a 
dish of grain, or other food, where they can help themselves at all times. 



50 THE EXCELSIOR rOULTRY BOOK. 

What I mean is, that soon after the fowls have had their breakfast, in 
an hour at most, scatter some grain, oats, wheat, buckwheat, and some- 
times a little sunflower seed and corn, into the litter on the floor, and 
let the hens scratch it out at their leisure. Don't throw out much grain 
at a time — a pint or so at a time, well scattered into the litter on the 
floor, is sufficient for 25 or 30 fowls. That pint of grain will keep them 
scratching until noon, and until night too for that matter, for they will 
keep on scratching for more long after the last bit has been scratched out 
and swallowed. This scratching amuses the f.,w Is, keeps them out of 
mischief, gives them the exercise needed to keep them healthy and from 
laying on too much fat, helps them keep warm in cold weather, and does 
them no end of good generally. About noon throw out another pint of 
grain ; this will keep them busy during the afternoon. 



Then along towards sundown, just betore the fowls go to roost, give 
them a supper of grain — corn about two-thirds of the time through cold 
weather. While cold corn digests slowly, it is a heat-prod ucing grain, and 
consequently is the thing to "stand by" during long, cold nights. But 
don't feed corn, or any other grain that you give at night, cold — especially 
if the weather is very cold. If you want to send your fowls off to bed 
feeling comfortable and thankful, give them hot grain for supper — just 
as hot as they can eat it. Put the corn or other grain in a kettle or pan 
and set it in the oven or on the back part of the stove, and stir it occa- 
sionally until it gets warm clear through. Mind now, I don't mean that 
you are to put water in with the grain; I mean hot, dry grain. If some 
grains on the bottom of the kettle should happen to get scorched, or even 
charred, it will do no harm ; the hens will eat it, and it will do them 
good, too. All nonsense to fuss warming corn? Well, you may think 
so, but stop a minute and think how you would feel if you were sent off 
to bed some cold winter night with your stomach full of cold corn or 
wheat. I don't believe you would find it comfortable. No, of course, 
you ain't a hen, but all the same hens have feelings, and I don't believe 
a hen feels much better under the circumstances than you would. It 
always pays to make hens comfortable. Be careful and not feed the 
grain too dot. To find out just how it should be, pick up a handful and 
hold it tightly in your closed hand; if it burns, of course it is too hot, 
but if it makes your hand feel warm and good, it is just right. Have it 
quite as hot as you can bear to hold in your hand, for it will cool some 
in carrying it out and distributing it. 

In regard to the quantity of grain that should be given for supper, no 
exact rule can be given; but generally speaking two quarts of good solid 
grain will be enough for twenty-five or thirty hens. 

GREEN FOOD. 
If we would keep our fowls in the best of health, and have them lay 
resrularly in cold weather, we must supply them with some kind of green 
food that will, as nearly as possible, fill the place of the green grass, e'c, 
that they get while at large in warm weather. Some poultry raisers 
claim that raw cabbage is "the best" green food, while others declare 
that rowen and clover are better than cabbage. So far as my experience 
goes, I think the better way is to feed buth if you can get them Hang 
the head of cabbage to the side of the house where the fowls can reach 



GEO. n. STAIIL, QVISCY, ILLIXOlS. 51 

it, and let them help themselves; and don't you worry ahout their eat- 
ing too much good food; when it is where they can get at it all the time 
they won't eat enough to hurt them. 

The rowen can be fed dry or steamed, but the better way is to steam 
it. Tut it in a pad or tub at night, pour on a little boiling water, cover 
closely, and leave it until morning; then mix it in with the morning 
feed. Unless the rowen is very tine, it should be cut tine before steam- 
ing. A quart of this rowen before it is wet will be enough to mix with 
feed for twenty-five hens. Give it two or three times a week; on the 
mornings when you give the "chop" feed, in with the table scraps, and 
when you use boded potatoes. When clover hay is used imttad of the 
rowen, the leaves and heads should be stripped from tt.e stalks before 
steaming. "When fed dry, put the rowen, cut fine, in a sort of rack fas- 
tened to the side of the iiouse; then the fowls can pull it out as they 
want it, and it will not be trampled on and wasted, as it would be if 
thrown on the floor. 

Ensilage — i. e., clover and grass kept in silos — is good green food for 
fowls. To prepare ensilage for fowls, cut the clover or grass into half 
inch lengths, pack it solid into a barnd or hogshead, then take a jack- 
screw and press it down as much as you think ttie barrel will stand; take 
off the f-crew, fill up again, put on the head (a round board which fiis 
into the barrel,), press down again, and then weight down with stones to 
hold in place. Besides grass and clover, onion tops, small onions, soft, 
loose heads of cabbage, turnip tops, etc., can be cut up fine, mixed to- 
gether, and put up the same way. At first, hens don't take to ensilage, 
but after they once get the taste of it they devour it greedily. 



Besides the regular meals and the green food, fowls must have some 
kind of animal food, or something that will take its place, every day. I 
say every day because I believe that it is with meat as it is with green 
food, a little t-very day is better for the fowls than two or three big 
meals a week and none at other times. If you have plenty of milk to 
give your fowls, and can give a meal of raw bone about twice a week, 
you need not bother to get meat for your hens. I know by experience 
that plenty of milk, sweet, sour, or buttermilk, and an occasional meal 
of raw bone, will fill the place of a daily meal of mea r . 

But not every farmer can get enough milk and bone. Well, then give 
some milk, some meat some bone, and finish out with an occasional 
feed of sunflower peed or hemp seed. These seeds are rich in oil, and 
when fed in moderation have proved a valuable addition to the bill 
of fare for poultry. Cottonseed meal, linseed meal, and gluten meal can 
to a certain extent be used to take the place of animal food. Of these 
the gluten meal, which is made from the "chit" of corn and is the refuse 
from the manufacture of starch, is the most valuable. It contains nearly 
thirty per cent of nitrogenous matter, and only about five per cent of 
oil. Cottonseed meal and linseed meal are both very rich in nitrogenous 
matter, cottonseed meal containing forty per cent, and the linseed meal 
thirty per cent; but both contain a much larger per cent of oil than the 
gluten meal, the cottonseed meal containing some twelve or thirteen per 
cent of oil.the linseed oil about ten per cent; but if fed judiciously in 
connection with other food, they can be fed profitably. About a pint 
of either linsetd or cottonseed meal, or a little more of the gluten meal 



52 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

is sufficient to mix with the morning feed for twenty hens. Feed it two 
or three times a week, and on other days use instead, the milk, bone and 
such scraps of meat as you have The variety is better than any one 
thing all the time, and by thus using what milk, raw bone, refuse meat, 
etc., that can be had on nearly every farm, and "piecing out" with some 
of the meals mentioned, the farmer who only keeps a moderate-sized 
flock of fowls can keep them supplied through the winter with some- 
thing that will fill the place of the bugs and worms which they pick up 
while running at large in warm weather. But when large numbers of 
hens are kept, it will be necessary to buy some kind of meat food. We 
prefer the cooked and ground beef scraps — which can be bought cheaply 
by the bag or barrel — to any other meat that we have ever tried. These 
prepared scraps are fine, about as dry as meal, and all ready to mix in 
with soft food. 

How much meat at once when meat is on the bill of fare? Well, if 
you will stop and think you will see that it is not at all likely that hens 
pick up any great amount of meat food at once when running at large 
in summer, so we will take the hint, and not give much at a time in 
winter. Because some meat is good for laying hens, many inexperienced 
poultry raisers feed too much, and the last state of those hens is worse 
than the first. A pint and a half of beef scraps is enough to mix with 
the morning food for twenty hens. When you use fresh meat scraps 
from your butcher, either cooked and chopped fine, or ground fine with- 
out cooking, use one third less. I believe in mixing all meat, whether 
beef scraps, or fresh meat, cooked or raw, with the. soft food, for then 
each fowl gets its share, and gets it regularly. 
DRINK. 

The next thing is the drink. Many farmers who would not think of 
depriving their fowls of drink in warm weather, make no effort to sup- 
ply them with water in cold weather. They seem to think that the 
biddies can get along somehow without drink. Probably they can "get 
along" without a good many things that the successful poultry raiser 
supplies, but the fowls that "get along somehow" are not the ones that 
pay the large dividends. During cold weather keep a supply of pure, 
fresh water, or milk, sometimes one, sometimes the other, by them 
during the greater part of the day. But don't give it to them cold. Very 
cold milk or water chills the body, retards digestion, and lessens the 
production of eggs. Warm drink and warm food makes the fowls feel 
comfortable. It is an easy matter to supply a constant supply of warm 
drink if you only know how. For a small flock of fowls, put a small 
kerosene lamp in a wooden bucket, and set a pan of water or milk over 
it. A very small flame will keep the drink warm. The bucket should 
be fastened to the floor. The lamp should be one of the kind that does 
not need a chimney. One or two holes in the side of the bucket will be 
necessary for ventilation, otherwise the lamp will not burn long. 

Another arrangement that suits me better is a cask, or some kind of 
water reservoir, fitted with a drop faucet. The faucet can be fitted to 
the cask in a few minutes. Set the cask on a block of wood, or some- 
thing that will raise it a foot or so from the floor, set a drinking vessel 
of some kind on a block under the faucet, and adjust the stem until the 
water drops just about as last as the fowls will drink it up. Fill the 
cask with hot water every morning, wrap old blankets about the cask, 
and the water will keep warm about all day. The hot water constantly 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 53 

dropping into the cooler water in the vessel keeps the fowls supplied 
with fresh water that is just about right — neither too hot or too cold. 
Drop faucets can be had for twenty-five cents apiece, and will last for- 
ever almost. Instead of wrapping with old blankets, I suppose the 
water cask could be fixed in art>ox and packed around with sawdust to 
keep the heat in. I never tried it, but see no reason why it cannot be 
fixed that way, and think it would be better than the blankets. Unless 
some such arrangement as I have described is used to keep the drink at 
a comfortable temperature, carry out warm drink regularly twice a day, 
once an hour or so after breakfast, and again in the middle of the after- 
noon, and after the fowls have had a good drink all around, empty the 
vessels. 

GRAVEL AND OYSTER SHELLS. 

Besides the food and drink, you must keep your fowls constantly sup- 
plied with gravel and crushed oyster shells, or something that will take 
the place of these things. The gravel is necessary to enable the fowls to 
grind up the hard food as it passes through the gizzard, and the oyster 
shells furnish lime which goes to form egg shells. Old crockery pounded 
into bits is as good as gravel. Some poultry writers advise keeping a 
box of pounded glass by the fowls— say that it is better for grinding ma- 
terial than either gravel or broken crockery; but while it may be as 
good, it certainly is no better than gravel or broken crockery, and pound- 
ing glass into bits of suitable size for hens to swallow is not what I call 
"pretty work." Pounding the crockery isn't exactly fun, but pounding 
glass is ten times worse, as you will say after you try it and get some of 
the fine sharp "splinters" in your fingers, your face, and perhaps in 
your eyes. 

And some of these same poultry raisers also claim that it is entirely 
unnecessary to feed oyster shells, or ground bone, or anything of the 
kind — that all the lime necessary for egg-shell material is found in the 
food; that a hen can't digest oyster shells, anyway, and therefore it is 
worse than useless, positively injurious, to give hens shells. To all of 
which I reply that I don't suppose a hen or anything else can digest the 
hard, pearly part of an oyster shell, and I am not aware that anybody 
ever claimed that that part of the shell could be digested ; but it does 
help furnish grinding material for the hens. And I don't know whether 
the softer part of the shell can be digested or not, and I don't care. But 
this much I do know about it: A flock of hens that had no shells or any 
other lime except what came from their food (and they were fed chiefly 
on wheat, oats and vegetables) for some little time were laying a large 
proportion of thin-shelled eggs— so thin that they w 7 ere worthless for 
hatching ; but in three days after the shells were supplied, the thin- 
shelled eggs were few and far between, and in a week there were none. 
We have experimented that way several times, and alwavs with the 
same result, when the hens were laying freely. With a flock of Buff 
Cochins that we experimented with, the oyster shells didn't make any 
difference one way or the other; but as they were only laying at the rate 
of one egg apiece in three days, I suppose there was lime enough in 
their food to supply their need for egg shell material. The other hens, 
when the shells did make a difference, were laying at the rate of two 
eggs apiece in three days. Careful observation showed me that the 
greatest layers ate more of the shells (even when supplied with plenty 
of gravel) than the poor layers, and from that fact I concluded that a 



54 THE EXCELSIOR TOULTRY BOOK. 

hen wouldn't eat more shells thai she needed, and that she wouldn't 
eat them anvway unless she needed them: so I shall continue to feed 
shelKand advise others to do the same, and shall not bother my head 
to find out whether they digest or not. m 

When you get out of oyster shells, or if you happen to live where 
they cannot he readily obtained, give lime in some other form. Old 
plaster, or mortar, fills the bill, and is greedily devoured by fowls. But 
oyster shells are now so generally used by poultry keepers throughout 
the country that all dealers in poultry supplies keep them on hand, and 
in some parts of the country, especially in the Eastern States, every 
country grocer keens them as much as he does sugar or salt, so that they 
are within reach of nearlv every farmer Large poultry raisers will find 
it more profitable to order of dealers in large quantities than to buy at 
retail of the village grocer. 

RAW BONE. 

I have already mentioned raw bone as an article of food for poultry, 
but I wish to make a "few more remarks" about it. I do not mean the 
bone meal ot commerce, though that is valuable for fowls and some 
should be fed when the raw article cannot be had. By raw bonfs I 
mean green bones right from the butcher, with the scrap« of meat cling- 
ing to them. Next best are the bones that have been boiled or baked ; 
such bones are usually thrown into the fire and burned until nothing 
but the limy portions remain, and 'hen thr wn to the hens; or else they 
are carelessly thrown out for the dogs and hens to pick at, and left kick- 
ing about the yard This issheer waste of valuable poultry food. These 
bones, whether raw, or whether from boiled or baked meat, are quite as 
valuable as so much sound grain, and should all be saved and crushed 
for poultry. Hand and power mill" for crushing bones can be had at 
reasonable prices, and are worth all they cost. If you want anything of 
the kind, address Geo. H. Srah\ Quincy, Illinois, for a catalogue of his 
grinding mills. I have used his $5 hand mill for grinding dry bones, 
cracking corn, wheat, beans, peas and all kinds of dry stuff; also his 
green bone mill, and both gave perfect satisfaction. 

VALUE OF APPLES FOR POULTRY FOOD. 

I have mentioned apples for poultry food, but possibly some of my 
readers may think that they are not much go^d — 'hardly worth enough 
to pay for the trouble of cooking" as one of my neighbors once re- 
marked. I used to think that apples were pretty "thin" food for hens, 
but one rear our supply of potatoes and other vegetables fell short, and 
as we had plenty of apple« we tried cooking some of the poorest. The 
result was so satisfactory that the next vear we saved all the cider apples 
and stored them away for the hens. For laving hens we consider the 
apples worth more than potatoes, but for fattening f>wls the potatoes 
are the most valuable. One of my poultry raising friends who keeps 
some f>00 laying hens through the winfer considers that it pays him to 
buy cider apples for his hpns, paying from G to 10 cents a Lushel for 
them in the orchard in the fall. 

Hens are very fond of raw sweet apples, and will greatly relish an 
occasional meal in winter as a change from a steady diet of other green 
food. 

CONDIMENTS AND "EGG FOODS." 

If there is one subject concerning which the mind of the average 
poultry raiser is in a state of almost hopeless bewilderment, it is this 






GEO. n. STAITL, QUIXCY, ILLINOIS. 55 

"egg-food," "condiment," "stimulant," and "tonic" business ; and no 
wonder, for one cnn hardly pick up a poultry journal, or an agricultural 
paper, without seeing at least half a dozen"advertisements of as many 
different kinds of 'egs-food," every one of which is recommended as 
"the best and cheapest," and "invaluable to every one who keeps fowls." 
We are told that the use of these egg-foods will make hens of any age 
or breed lay right through the coldest weather, that hens will do with 
less other food when fed these egg-producing foods, etc. When Ihe 
anxious seeker after information turns from the advertisements to the 
reading columns, he is more bewiHered than before; one poultry writer 
condems the use of all egg-foods, won't even admit that a little salt and 
pepper may be good for fowls; another declares that his fowls have 
been greatly benefited by the use of some particular egg-food ; a third is 
undecided about the matter, a fourth knows that his fowls were injured 
by the use of stimulants ; and so it goes, and the reader is no wiser than- 
when he began. I believe in sea<-on ; ng all soft food with a li tie salt 
and a dash of pepper, and I used to believe in other condiments, hon- 
estly thought the fowls were benefited by them, but after a time doubts 
crept into my cranium, and I experimented, and the result was lhat I 
dropped everything but salt and pepper. I am thoroughly convinced 
that if fowls are properly fed, and otherwise properly cared for, no arti- 
ficial egg-food of any kind is ever necessary for hens, and as generally 
used they are positively injurious. By the use of some of these egg- 
foods the hens can be forced to lay a greater number of eges in a given 
time than they otherwise would, but this forced egg-production soon 
uses up the hens; and besides, the c e forced eggs will not hatch well, 
and those that do hatch will not produce so strong, healthy chickens as 
eggs from hens that have never been thus forced. If you don't want the 
eggs to hatch, and don't want to keep the hens af er they have "layed 
out," you can perhaps make it pay to force them through one winter on 
the high pressure plan — provided you get your egg food cheap enough. 

RECIPES FOR EGG-FOOD. 

If you will have egg-food, don't buy it; mate it yourself; it will be 
just as good — or bad — as Ihe "bcughten" aiticle, and ever so much 
cheaper. Here are the recipes: 

Egg-Food No. 1.— Ten pounds best ground beef scraps, 5 pounds fine 
ground bone, 2 pounds powdered charcoal, 1 pound sulphur, 2 ounces 
cavenne, 4 ounces salt. One quart of this mixture each day to every 
100 hens. 

Egg-Food No 2. — Seventy per cent of ground oyster shells, 15 per cent 
of fine ground bone. 5 per cent ground gypmm,2 per cent of Apothecary's 
carbonate of iron. 4 per cent of sand, and 4 per cent of cayenne pepper. 
Tw'i tablespoonfuls a day to every six fowls. 

Egg- Food No. 3.— One pound each of fine ground bone, dried meat, 
linseed meal and fenugreek; an ounce each of sulphur, pepper, ginger 
and copperas. Tablespoonful once a day to every six hens. 

Egg-Food No. 4 — Two pounds each of ground bone and ground meat, 
a pound each of charcoal and fenugreek, half a pound of salt, an ounce 
each of fulphur, pepper, baking soda and ginger. Tablespoonful a day 
to six hens. 

Egg- Food No. 5.— One pound each of bone meal, linseed meal and char- 



56 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

coal, one-fourth of a pound each of sulphur, copperas, saffron and salt, 
and two ounces of red pepper. Tablespoonful to every six hens once a 
day. 

VARIETY OF FOOD NECESSARY. 

If you ever get a notion into your head that you can figure out a per- 
fect food for laying hens— a ration that shallcontain all the elements 
that enter into the composition of an egg— just so much of this thing 
and that thing, everything in just the right proportion— something that 
you can feed right along every day, get it out before you fool away any 
time in experimenting. I misplaced a good deal of time and money on 
this 'perfect food notion" business; also tried a good many perfect rations 
figured out by others, but such foods didn't fill the bill. Our figures 
were all right, but the hens wouldn't carry out their part of the program; 
after a short time of living on our "perfect food," they invariably went 
back on it — only ate enough to keep death off, quit laying, and seemed 
out of sorts generally. After a few such experiments, it dawned upon 
my mind that if I were confined to one kind of food I should probably 
get sick of it. no matter how perfect the food might be in itself, and that 
hens were built pretty much the same way ; so since that time I have 
steadily adhered to the plan of feeding about everything edible that I 
could get, provided it was fresh and wholesome, and it has worked won- 
derfully well. 

EXERCISE. 

A few pages back I mentioned the benefit it would be to the fowls to 
scratch their grain out of a pile of litter; now here I want to impress it 
upon your minds that fowls must have exercise to keep them in good 
health. In warm weather when they can wander about at will they get 
the necessary amount of exercise by walking and scratching. In winter 
they cannot walk around so much, and if they cannot make it up by 
scratching more, they will not long keep in good health and good laying 
order. Lack of sufficient exercise is in many cases the only reason why 
fowls do not lay in winter. Then give your hens a chance to scratch by 
keeping the hen house floor well littered with forest leaves, chaff and 
sweepings from the barn, or if nothing better can be had, cut straw; and 
encourage them to "improve their opportunities" by scattering grain in 
this litter, as I have before directed. If your poultry house is anywhere 
near the barn yard, keep a path open from the poultry house" to the 
barn yard, and let the fowls go back and forth at will. If at any time the 
path gets icy, strew it with chaff or sawdust. 

DON'T KEEP THEM SHUT UP. 

Every year, as soon as the first snow comes, some poultry writers who 
ought to know better give a lot of advice about keeping hens in out of 
the cold, not allowing them to walk on the snow or eat it, etc. There is 
no sense in such advice. Hens will do better, keep in better health 
through the winter, be less liable to colds and roup, if allowed the 
privilege of going out of doors about every day, than they will if kept 
confined closely to the house all the time. Tf the snow drifts up about 
your hen house, shovel it away from the front, clear to the ground ; 
keep a place cleared in front where the fowls can get out for an airing. 
It won't hurt them to step on the snow ; and as for eating it, our hens 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 57 

always ate all they wanted, and I never saw any ill effects from it. One 
thing sure : it never gave them the toothache. Hens that are regularly 
supplied with drink will not hanker much after snow. 

If you live where "awful" deep snows, blizzards and 40 to 50 degrees 
below zero weather prevails during the winter, you should of course 
keep your fowls shut in during such spells of weather. It is in such 
localities that a closed shed adjoining the poultry house is a handy thing 
to hove. 

CARE. 

What do I mean by that ? Well I mean just care, and let me tell you 
that means a good deal for a word of only four letters. Care means 
getting up and feeding the fowls in the morning; it means keeping the 
fowls supplied with drink ; it means keeping the vessels for food and 
drink clean; it means keeping the fowls and house free from lice; it 
means keeping the dust-bin supplied with dust; it means watching for 
the first symptoms of ill-health among the flock, and taking the case in 
hand in season; it means keeping the oyster shells and gravel before 
the fowls all the time ; it means — well it means a general watchful over- 
sight of your flock all the time, and constant attention to all the minute 
details of the work — doing everything when it should be done. 

To sum up on this subject of getting eggs in winter, a comfortable 
house, fowls of the right age, and good care are the "secret" of winter 
eggs. 



CHAPTER V. 
EGGS IN SUMMER.— HOW TO PRESERVE EGGS, Etc. 

Food.— Try to bear in mind that fowls need less food in summer than in 
winter, and that those that have full liberty on a farm should be given 
less than those confined to yards. A moderate-sized flock of fowls will, 
when on free range, pick up the greater part of their living during warm 
weather. On some (arms, where a good deal of grain is raised, the fowls 
can, for several weeks after grain harvest, pick up all their living, i. e., if 
the grain fields are anywhere within reach of the fowls. The French 
have a fashion of building poultry houses on wheels, and moving them 
right into the grain fields after harvest. This French fashion is a good 
one, and it might pay to imitate it here. Have you ever been through 
a pasture field in late summer, when the grasshoppers were so numerous 
that they rose in clouds at every step? And didn't you wish you could 
turn your fowls into that field? We have. If we had some of those 
movable houses we could move them into 'he pastures and let the fowls 
feast on the hoppers. It would save a good deal of chicken feed. When 
the fowls can only pick up part of their living, the other part should be 
furnished in the shape of two scant rations a day— the morning meal 
of table scraps mixed with bran, the supper of oats or wheat Fowls 
that are confined to yards, and are therefore entirely dependent upon 
you for food, should of course be gived more food, and a greater variety. 

Green Food. — Fowls that are allowed free range over the farm can get 
a constant supply of grass from the time it starts in the spring until after 
a killing frost in the fall, and their owner need take no thought in regard 
to the green faod; but the fowls that are confined to yards must have 
green food supplied to them daily. What did you say? Something 
about the yard being in sod. and you supposed it would grow grass 
enough to keep the fowls supplied ? Well, perhaps it would if managed 
right, but as usually managed it does not. Let me tell you that twenty 
fowls kept in a yard containing one-eighth of an acre will, in a short 
time, so trample out and kill all the fin<-r grass that there will be but 
little if any left that will be fit to eat. I have seen poultry yards so bare 
of grass that a pair of hungry grasshoppers could not have obtained a 
square meal, and yet, because the dry, almost bare sod was there, the 
owners of the yard supposed their fowls could " pick up grass enough ;" 
thev also wondered why their hens didn't lay better. 

Now "supposing" won't do in the poultry yard ; anyway it won't keep 
the fowls in green food ; at least it never did ours. Farmers who keep 
their fowls confined to yards can easilv supply them with a daily meal 
of fresh green food by letting them out for half an hour each day, just 
at sunset, for a run on the fresh grass When only allowed their liberty 
for a short time each day, they will not spend their time in getting into 
mischief, but will "improve the occasion" to get a square meal of fresh 
gra«s, and perhaps catch a belated bug or two, and then will return to 
their houses at their usual bed time, and can be shut in. 

Town and village poultry keepers who only keep a few fowls can also 



GEO. H. STAIIL, QUIXCY, ILLINOIS. 59 

give their fow's a meal of fresh grass the same way, by turning them out 
on the lawn for a short time jist at night each day. Or they can clip a 
little grass every day and feed it to the fowls while fresh. The best 
time to cut it is in the morning while the dew is on, and then set it 
awav in the shade until about noon, and give it to the fowls then for a 
lunch. 

Another way to secure a constant supply of green grass is to have two 
yards for each fl^ck of fowls and use them alternately throughout the 
season. And still another — one that is largely practiced by poultry 
raisers, is to spade up a portion of the yard, enclose it with a few mova- 
ble panels of wire or lath fence, sow grass seed thicklv, and when it is 
up a few inches, turn the fowls on for a few hours daily, and let them 
help themselves. While they are eating this patch of grass, another is 
growing; and when the second is ready a third patch is started. You 
can keep this up a whole feason, and wind up in the fall by sowing a 
patch of rye that the fowls can feed on until snow covers it ; and again 
in the spring as soon as the snow is gone. Of course there issome work 
in it, but it gives the fowls the best of green food, and by thus turning 
over the sod and growing a crop on it, it is purified, and thesameground 
can be u=ed year after year for a poultry yard, and not become un- 
healthy for the fowls. 

Meat. — Fowls that have full liberty do not need any meat during warm 
weather besides what they can pick up in the shape of bugs, worms, 
etc. ; but those that are confined to yards all. or the greater part of the 
time, should have a little meat daily - about half as much as in winter. 
Where only a small flock is kept the scraps and trimmings from the meat 
used in the family will probably be sufficient; but where large numbers 
are kept I should advise the use rf the ground beef scraps in addition 
to the home Fupply of scraps. But be sure these are always fresh, for 
meat that is "tainted" will almost furely cause sickness among fowls. 
Your nose will tell you whether the scraps are fit for poultry food or 
not ; if there is no unpleasant, sickening odor apparent when your nose 
is clo?e to the open barrel, they are all right. 

Drink.— Unless you are fortunate enough to have a spring, or a stream 
of clear running water on your premises wher* your fowls can get at it 
at all times, keep a supply of pure fresh water by them ; don't, by failing 
to supplv them with clean water, force them to slake their thirst at the 
sink drain, or from any puddle of impure water they come across. I am 
not prepared to say positively that ordinarily impure or dirty water will 
actually cause disease, hut such water certainly does the fowls no good, 
f nd it is well enough always to keep on the safe side by supplying pure, 
fresh water. Twice or three times a day in warm weather carry your 
fowls fresh cool water. Don't pour it in an old tin pan and set it in the 
sun ; use some of the drinking vessels mentioned in a previous chapter, 
and set them in the shade. No shade handy? Well then, make some. 
Drive four stakes in the ground, saw off the tops square, nail on a cover, 
and set your drinking vessel under that. 

To supply fresh water without the trouble of refilling the drinking 
vessels through the dav, set a cask that will hold water enough to last 
through the day, one of Wheelock's drop faucets, put the two together, 
fill the cask with cold water, set it on a block or bench in the shade, wet 
an old blanket and wrap about it. set a vessel under the faucet to catch 
the water as it drops, and the arrangement is complete. The evapora- 



60 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

tion of water from the wet blanket will keep the water inside the cask 
cool. Or the cask might be packed in sawdust, as suggested in last chap- 
ter. The same arrangement answers equally well for summer and win- 
ter — only in one case it is filled with hot water, and in the other with 
cold. Where large numbers of fowls are kept in different yards one of 
these cask "fountains" in each yard will save a "sight" of work in water- 
ing the fowls. 

And do keep the drinking vessels clean ; it is no use to put clean 
water in a vessel that has not been cleaned for so long that it is green 
and slimy around the edges. Scrub them out with hot water often 
enough to keep them clean. 

Besides supplying your fowls with water, give them, especially those 
confined to yards, all the milk you can spare for them. When they have 
a pan of milk every day, no meat will be needed. 

Shade. — Did you ever notice how fowls seek the shady side of the 
buildings, the shelter of bushes and weeds during the middle of the day 
in hot weather? They don't like to stay out exposed to the hot rays of 
the sun any better than you, and it isn't healthy for them to be "thus 
exposed, either. The fowls that have their full liberty can usually find 
shade somewhere on the premises, but for ihose that are confined to 
yards destitute of trees and bushes, you must provide some shelter from 
the burning rays of the midsummer tun. Of course they can go into 
their house, but they don't like to; they want a shady place out of doors 
where they can loaf, wallow in the dust, and talk over poultry matters. 
The "properest" thing we know of for shade is a currant bush. There 
is nothing better than a big currant bush, except a whole row of them. 
When the hen can wallow in the dust under the shade of a currant 
bush, and reach up and pick the green currants, or the. ripe ones, she is 
just about as happy and contented as she can be. So I advise you to set 
out currant bushes all around your poultry yard fences ; or if that is 
likely to overdo the currant business, set some gooseberry bushes, rasp- 
berry and blackberry vines, quince bushes, plum and cherry trees. In 
this way you will not only furnish shade for the fowls, but, as soon as 
the bushes and vines come into bearing, you will have paying crops of 
berries and fruit besides what the fowls eat; and the fruit will be all the 
fairer for the fowls wallowing about the roots of the trees and vines, and 
devouring the bugs and worms. 

While the trees, etc., are growing large enough to afford the necessary 
amount of shade, you can provide shade by planting quick-growing 
plants and vines, or making cheap sheds. Some of the best plants for 
this purpose are sunflower, corn, and artichokes planted thickly. Cheap 
sheds can be made by driving two posts in the ground, about three and 
a half feet high, and some eight feet apart. Across the top of these 
posts nail a stout cross-piece, and then place boards some eight or ten 
feet long, with one end resting on the cross-piece, and projecting a foot 
or so beyond, the other on the ground. The ground under these sheds 
should be spaded up, so that the fowls will have a chance to wallow in 
the earth. If you have no cheap, refuse lumber on hand, use rough 
poles instead of boards, and then cover with straw or old corn-fodder — 
anything that will make shade. 

Lime, Gravel, E'o. — Because your fowls can get at the ground, do not 
imagine that they no longer need the supply of crushed oyster shells or 
lime in some other shape. Keep a supply where they can help them- 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 61 

selves every day in the year. They will eat no more than they need. 
Just so about gravel. Fowls need it all the time, but some farmers who 
take pains to supply it or some substitute in winter, take no further 
thought about it as soon as the hens can get to the ground. They seem 
to think the hens can pick up enough anywhere; and so they can if the 
soil of the farm is gravelly. But on many farms there is no gravelly 
soil within reach of the fowls. On a farm where I once lived there was 
not gravel enough on the place to supply the needs of half adozen hens 
— except what was brought on. If you live on such a farm, haul a load 
of gravel from somewhere and dump it down where the fowls can help 
themselves. It is my firm belief that a "never- failing" supply of gravel 
and crushed oyster shells would prevent a good deal of the cholera sick- 
ness among fowls. 

The House. — No one thing is more essential to the health and comfort 
of fowls in hot weather than clean, well-ventilated roosting-places. The 
fortunate poultry raisers who live where owls, foxes and other chicken 
thieves trouble not, can turn their fowls out of doors in the spring and 
let them roost in the open air through the summer and the early fall, 
and it will be a wise thing to do; but unfavored poultry keepers must 
do the next best thing — remove doors and windows, and use screen 
doors and windows made of galvanized wire netting. This arrangement 
converts the close poultry house into the next best thing to an open, airy 
shed. 

Exercise. — Fowls that have the privilege of rambling over as much of 
creation as they choose to explore, will take a'l the exercise they need 
to keepnn good health; but not so with fowls that are confined to yards; 
unless some extra inducements are held out to entice them to exercise, 
they soon tire of their yards and stand around in a listless sort of way, 
as if life had no charms for them, or else do their level best to get the 
other side of the fence. To keep them well and contented, keep them 
Dusy. A portion of their yard should be kept spaded or ploughed up, 
and then seeds of grain of any kind can be scattered occasionally, and 
raked or hoed in. At other times the grain should be scattered, sowed 
all over the yard. Not a grain will be lost ; the fowls will hunt and 
scratch it all out, and in so doing get the needed exercise, and in a 
natural way. 

HOW TO GET THE HIGHEST PRICE FOR EGGS. 
If 3 r ou have anywhere from ten to twenty, or thirty, or more dozens 
of eggs to sell every week, don't sell to the country store-keeper, or the 
village grocer for just what he chooses to give in "store pay," but either 
ship regularly to a city commission hpuse that handles eggs, or else sell 
direct to private customers in your nearest village or city. If you live 
within easy teaming distance of a city or large village, and want to sell 
eggs to private customers, go right around and call at the houses until 
you find your customers — people who will agree to take a certain num- 
ber of fresh eggs every week, or every two weeks, and pay a few cents 
per dozen more than the price i f store eggs. There are plenty of such 
people in every city, and in every fair-sized village in the United States, 
and you can find them if you look for them. After you find your cus- 
tomers take them clean, good- sized fresh eggs regularly at the time agreed 
upon. Warrant every egg fresh, and see that every egg is fresh. If by 
any chance a bad or stale egg should get in with the others make it good 



62 TTTE EXCEtSJOR frOtTLTRY ftOOfc. ^ 

to your customers. By steadily following this course you will always 
have a steady, sure, paying market for all the egg-i you can "raise," even 
When the markets are full of stale and "preserved" eggs in various stages 
of badness. 

If for any reason this way of marketing eggs is impracticable for you, 
ship direct to the city market if possible. If you have not enough to 
ship every week alone, get some of your neighbors, whom you can trust 
to put in only fresh eggs, to join with you. For nearly all city markets 
eggs should be packed in Stevens' 3 dozen egg cases. These cases are 
made of solid white pine, have hinges, fastenings and partitions, all ready 
for use, and cost 9 J cents each for the 3D dozen size. Railroads and ex- 
press companies return the empty cases free of charge. If you want 
smaller cates, lor 15 dozen, you can make them at home, using Stevens' 
pasteboard partitions, which can be obtained of dealeis in poultry sup- 
plies. Always keep the cases in good repair, so as to secure against 
breaking while on the road. Put a light layer of perfectly clean, sweet, 
dry straw on the botton of the case before filling the first section, and 
another light layer on top of last section, before putting on the cover. 
Keep the cases clean, free from any unwholesome, stale smell, and to 
do this pack only sound, fresh, clean eggs. If by any chance an egg 
should be broken, and the section daubed, put in a new clean section. 

In cold weather, barrels are used largely for shipping eggs, especially 
for the New York market, as many eggs are sold there for re-shipment 
to other points. An ordinary fiour barrel will hold aboutseventy dozen. 
The poultry raiser who wants smaller packages in barrel shape should 
get half barrels. It requires some " # knack" to pack a barrel of eggs 
properly, but if the following directions, which are from the "Shippers' 
Guide" of James Rowland, 85 Warren street, New York City, are care- 
fully followed, the eggs will come out all right: 

"Clean, bright, and perfectly dry rye straw makes the best packing. 
The least dampness is bad, and is sure to have a damaging effect on the 
eggs. The straw should be cut fine and even, from a half to three- 
quarters of an inch in length, and entirely free from long straw. When 
rye straw cannot be obtained, clean, dry and bright wheat straw can be 
used. Never use oat straw, as it is apt to gather dampness. 

The best barrels to use are round-hooded ones, and of the right size to 
hold seventy five dozen each, namely: a barrel measuring 174 inches at 
the heads, 2l inches at the bilge, and 31 inches length of staves. Tut 
fourteen layers of eggs in each barrel of this height, being sure to keep 
them well apart in the layers, so that the straw will work in between the 
eggs. When ordinary flour barrels are used, seventy dozen is all that 
can be safely packed in them, or thirteen layers. Put about four and 
one half dozen in the first layer, and increase one half dozen to the 
layer up to six and one half dozen in the two middle layers, and then 
decrease at the same rate. There should be three inches of straw be- 
tween the eggs and each head ol the barrel, and enough between each 
layer to keep the eggs well apart. The eggs should be plactd with the 
ends towards the sides of the barrel, but not touching by an inch or 
more. After each two or three layers are put in, they should be well 
settled by using a plank follower, and gently shaking the barrel until 
well settled. In heading, great care should be used in having the head 
press firmly on the straw filling, so that the eggs cannot work loose in 
the barrel by handling, but not so tight, of course, as to break them. 



GEO. IT. STAHL, QUIXCY, ILLINOIS. 63 

The importance of good packing would be better appreciated by 
shippers if they could see their consignees selling the eggs. "When the 
head is taken out of a barrel properly packed with crisp, elastic straw, 
the head springs up, and the eggs show up in good condition. But the 
removal of the head from a barrel packed with musty, damp straw 
scares the customer; then if the packing has sagged down any, leaving 
room for the eggs to shift, the top layers, from careless handling, have a 
number of broken egss tt.at have matted the straw, the customer thinks 
the whole barrel is in the same condition, and not only refuses to buy 
that barrel, but looks with suspicion upon that entire lot or brand. 

The eggs in each barrel should be of uniform quality as far as fresh- 
ness and cleanliness are concerned. If a shipper lias stale or dirty eggs 
and wants to ship them, he should put them in separate packages with 
a distinct mark, as deception in such cases causes merchants trouble with 
their customers, anil will only reflect on the original shipper. The leg- 
ular brand should be uniform in every respect in order to secure and 
maintain a reputation. All doubtful eggs should be sorted out, marked, 
and shipped separately. 

Dealers should employ none but good, careful packers, — those who 
take pride in doing their work well. The one who does the heading 
should be a man of good judgment, careful and painstaking, — one who 
will do his work without breaking the eggs on the top layer, and at the 
same time secure them against shifting. Too much care cannot be taken 
in this part of the work, because nothing injures a brand and interferes 
with the sale more than btoken eggs on the top layer. 

From June until the middle of (September, eggs should be forwarded 
by express; at other seasons of the year they can be sent by freight." 

In winter, to guard against freezing, use more packing at ends and 
sides of barrel. And in winter, especially in shipping long distances, it 
is better to ship by express than by freight. The chances of breaking 
will be greatly lessened if in addition to the three inches of short straw 
at the top and bott m of barrel, a little long, soft hay or straw be used. 
Put this evenly on bottom of barrel before putting in the other packing, 
and on top after the last layer of the other packing is on. This plan is 
recommended by James Rowland & Co., commission merchants of New 
York City, and we know by experience it woiks well. Make the count 
correctly, and mark it honestly on the barrel. Also put upon barrels 
and cases your name and address, and the address of firm to which 
the package is sent. If you expect to make a business of shipping, have 
some particular mark or brand of yonr own, and put it on all packages. 
Then if you ship the best, if your "goods are always as represented, and 
get to market in attractive shape, you will soon establish a reputation 
that will pay in dollars and cents, for your brand of eggs will find ready 
sale at top prices when less desirable brands are selling fr less, or not at 
all. Nearly all commission merchants will, upon application, furnish 
stencil-plates for marking to those who propose to ship regularly to their 
house. 

HOW TO PRESERVE EGGS. 

To those whose knowledge of preserving eggs is limited to what they 
have read on the subject, it doubtless seems as if there were really no 
need to write anything more about it — that the numerous recipes which 
have been published time and again, and.which are said to pieserve the 
eggs so perfectly that at the end of three, six or nine months, as the case 



64 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

may be, they "cannot be told from fresh eggs," covers the whole ground 
— that all the farmer or poultry raiser needs to do in order to pocket big 
profits, is to gather the eggs, pack them, wait until the price gets up to 
the highest notch, and then sell as fresh eggs. But those who have 
tried, as I have, nearly all the known methods of preserving eggs, and 
carefully noted results, know that something more than a receipt, as • 
usually given, is needed to insure success. The receipt for the lime 
method goes the rounds regularly year after year — so much lime, so 
much salt, so much water, but that is not all that is necessary to enable 
a novice to "lime" eggs so that the business will pay. An inexperienced 
hand cannot even "dry pack" eggs with any certainty of success unless 
his "receipt" contains more definite and sensible directions than is 
usually given in such receipt. The doing, or leaving undone, some little 
thing not mentioned in the receipt has ruined a good many lots of eggs 
that would otherwise have been good. 

The Lime Method is the one that has been, and is now most used by . 
those who pack large numbers of eggs. These limed eggs are not as good 
as fresh laid eggs. The method of preserving eggs perfectly for any length 
of time has not yet been discovered, and probably there is no way to do 
it, for there is air enough inside the egg to spoil it, eventually, no matter 
what method is used to "preserve" it. But although the limed eggs and 
eggs preserved by ther methods are not as good as fresh laid eggs, and 
never command so high a price, still the best brands are very good— a 
good deal better than no eggs, and sell at prices that leave big profits for 
the packer. When city markets have been full of inferior limed and 
other kinds of preserved eggs that were almost unsalable at half the 
price of fresh eggs, the best limed sold up to within six or eight cents a 
dozen of the price of fresh. 

For pickle for 500 dozen or so of eggs, take one bushel of the best 
white fresh lime, one peck of clean rock salt, two pounds of cream of 
tartar, and 250 quarts of pure water. For a greater or less number of eggs 
Ihe quantity can be increased or diminished in proportion. Take the 
lime with some of the water, as if for whitewashing. After thoroughly 
slacking, add the rest of the water and let it stand 24 hours, stirring sev- 
eral times during that time. When well settled carefully dip off the 
clear liquid so as not to disturb the lime at the bottom. Then add the 
salt and cream of tartar, stirring occasionally until the salt is dissolved; 
then it is ready for the eggs. To put the eggs in the pickle, use a dipper 
made by punching a tin basin full of holes, and attaching a long handle. 
A basin that will hold three dozen is a convenient size, though some 
prefer a larger one. The handle should be about three feet long and 
firmly fastened to the dish. Any tinner can make one if you tell him 
just what you want. Fill the dipper full of eggs, let it down into the 
pickle, and when near the bottom turn the eggs out carefully. When 
the eggs are about a foot deep on the bottom, spread over them a little 
of the "milky" pickle, made by lightly stirring up the top of the lime 
that settled in the barrel or hogshead where you made the pickle. The 
object in putting in this milky pickle is to have the fine particles of 
lime, which gives it the milky appearance, close the pores of the shells. 
If you get too much of this lime in it will stick to the shells and greatly 
increase the work of cleaning them for market; and if you don't get 
enough in the pores will not be closed, and the whites will be thin and 
watery. Experience alone can teach you about the right quantity, but 



GEO. n. STAIIL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 65 

until you can 'guess" accurately be sure and get in enough, for although 
it make3 extra work, too much is better than not enough. After you 
get in the milky pickle, put in another foot of eggs, then more of the 
milky part, and so on, until your tank, or whatever you pack in, is full 
to within four inches of the top. Then cover with a piece of white cot- 
ton cloth, and on top of the cloth spread about three inches of the lime 
that settled in making the pickle. Always keep the pickle over this 
lime. For a cover, lay some lath, or strips of board across the top, and 
over these a piece of sacking or matting. Never cover tight with a board 
cover. 

It makes no difference what you pack the eggs in, provided it is clean 
and sweet, and does not leak. Some packers use large tanks or vata 
built in a cellar around the walls with about half their depth below the 
surface; others use immense tubs made for the purpose. Lard tierces 
and kerosene barrels are also used. To clean a kerosene barrel, set it on 
fire inside and burn until it is slightly charred ; then smother out the 
fire by turning the barrel bottom upwards. Scrape off the char, fill with 
lime water and let it stand several davs. There must be no smell of 
kerosene about the barrel when the pickle is put in. Lard tierces are 
cleaned by scraping as clean as possible, then scrubbing thoroughly with 
hot, strong soap suds, and afterwards putting in a peck of ashes, filling 
up with water and letting stand a few days, when it should be emptied, 
and washed before putting in the pickle. A lard tierce will hold from 
160 to 170 dozen. Before putting in the pickle a faucet should be put in 
each barrel or tank, near the bottom, so that the pickle can be drawn off 
when necessary. 

A cellar that is perfectly free from all foul odors, and that can be kept at 
a steady, low temperature— not over 50°. and as much lower as possible 
down to any point above freezing, is the place for eggs, for they will not 
keep where it is warm, or where the mercury is continually wandering 
up and down from 35° or 40° to 60° or 70° or higher. 

Eggs for packing must be freth (those from hens not running with 
cocks preferred), with clean, perfect shells. Dirty, stale, cracked eggs 
will not keep, and may spoil the pickle. If you pack only the eggs that 
are laid by your own hens, you can of course take them fresh from the 
nest and put them immediately in the pickle. Of such eggs you need 
not loose one per cent of the number packed. But if you buy eggs to 
pack, you must, to be on the safe side, "candle" every one before putting 
them in the pickle, unless you get them fresh from your neighbors every 
day, and you are sure that you can depend upon said neighbors to fur- 
nish fresh eggs only. This "candling" eggs is one of the things that 
you cannot learn wholly from a recipe; it can only be perfectly learned 
by practice, and it takes quite a bit of practice to enable one to "candle" 
and "check" eggs rapidly, and tell certainly which eggs are fresh and 
whole, and which are not. Anybody can tell when an egg is rotten, 
and almost any one can soon pick out the eggs that are so old that the 
yolk has settled to one side, but it takes an "expert" to detect the egg 
that is almost but not quite good enough to go into the pickle. And 
anybody who is not half blind can see a decided crack in an egg, but 
only the practical eye and ear can detect the tiny crack that, although 
hardly visible to the sharpest eyes, is enough to spoil the egg after it is 
in the pickle. 

To candle eggs the expert darkens the room, places a lighted candle 



66 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

(tallow or paraffine) on a table or box before him, has a basket of eggs 
handy; also baskets or cases to put the eggs in after candling. Then 
he takes two or three eggs in each hand, holds them close to the lighted 
candle, looks through them as he gives them a quick, rotary motion, 
turning them nearly around. The first pair examined, by a "slight of 
hand" acquired by long practice, the next two or three are slipped for- 
ward and examined the same way. Then they are "checked" by strik- 
ing the shells lightly and quickiy together. A clear, what might be 
called a ringing, sound shows that both shells are perfect; a dull sound 
indicates that one of the eggs is cracked, and then the operator ascer- 
tains which one by examining with the eye, or by trying both on 
another egg. All this is done rapidly, though to read" about it one 
would think it a slow process. How one can tell the ones that are al- 
most, but not quite good, I can't describe on paper, but if you take eggs 
that you know to be fre^h, and examine them before the candle you 
will know just how they look ; then examine eggs of different ages care- 
fully, the same way, and note the difference. That's the way I learned 
and you can learn more in that way in an hour than you could learn in 
any other way in a week. 

Sometimes the pickle will change color, the thin crust which forms on 
top disappears, the pickle "works," foams, and emits a disagreeable odor. 
This is caused by broken eggs, foul barrels, or by using impure water for 
the pickle. In such cases the best way is to take the eggs out, throw 
out the pickle and make new ; but some packers, if the pickle be not 
very foul, draw off two-thirds of the pickle and fill up with fresh. 

AVhen drawing off the pickle, either for the purpose of filling op with 
new, or to take the eggs out for market, do not draw off more than two- 
thirds before taking out some of the eggs, for when a large number of 
eggs are packed in one receptacle the weight of the eggs is liable to 
break those in bottom of the tank if^all the pickle be taken out at once. 

When the time comes to market trie eggs, take them out of the pickle, 
wash clean by putting them, a few dozen at a time, in a tub of clean 
water, and stirring them carefully with the hand. After washing put 
them in a cool airy place to dry. and when dry candle out the spoiled 
ones before packing for market. If any eggs are found that are en- 
crusted with lime, they should be laid out and fully cleaned before 
packing. The average per cent of loss among the large packers who buy 
up egs?s wherever they can get them, is about ten per cent of the whole 
number put in the pickle, but greater care would probably reduce this to 
about five per cent. 

Ice-Howe, or "Cold Storage" Eggs, are eggs that have been kept in a 
"cold room" in an ice house. They are usually better than limed eggs, 
and sell for a few cents a dozen more than tne best limed. But after 
being taken from the refrigerators these cold storage eggs will not keep 
as long as the limed egg-s will after being taken from the pickle. Farm- 
ers who have an ice house (and every farmer ought to have one), can 
have a cold room in it, and keep the eggs laid in warm weather until the 
price goes up. 

The following description of an ice house containing a cold room was 
taken from the New England Homestead, and is the best I have seen: 

The building is 25 feet pquare, in=ide measurement, and 22 teet from 
the floor of the cool room to the ceiling over the ice. The outside wall 
i9 of brick, 13 inches thick. The walls should have a solid stone foun- 



GEO. H. STAHL, QTJIJCCY, ILLINOIS. 



67 



dation, and the floor of ihe ice room, which is over the cool room, must 
be well supported by solid posts in the co'd room To prevent drip into 
the cold room, the ice is stored on tight V-shaped troughs which carry 
off all the water. The floor of the cool room is best made of concrete. 
The doors must be double or triple, perfectly tight, and two of them 
must never be open at i he same time. The cool room is 9 feet high, and 
the ice room 12 feet. The win- 
dow in the ool room has three 
sashes, with airspaces between. 
Inside of the brick wall, and 
10 or 18 inches from it, there is 
a board partition, and the space 
is filled with sawdust. The ice " ( 
is cut square and packed solid 
in the ice room, leaving a space 
all around the ice. By this plan 
there is no sawdust in contact 
with the ice, and the air of the 
room circulates all around and 
over the ice. On the floor abve 
the ice room there should be 
two feet and a half of well 
packed sawdust or turners' shav- 
ings. As long as the tempera- 
ture of the goods stored is above 
the temperature of the room, 
there will be a gentle draught 
around the mass of ice, and of ^$J 
course all moisture and vapor 
in the air, and odors from the , 
goods will condense on the ice, 

and pass off. so that you can keep not only eggs, but butter, milk, fruit, 
and meat all in the same room without danger of injuring the flavor of 
anything so kept. The features of this plan can be carried out by ar- 
ranging a room inside another building. 

For cold storage, egsrs are better packed in cases. When taken from 
the cold room they will "sweat." After they dry off, candle and repack 
for market. 

Our Method. — After experimenting: with several different methods of 
preserving eggs for winter use and for market, we are convinced that 
simply packing in salt is the easiest and best method for housekeepers 
who desire to put down a few dozens for winter use, and for poultry 
keepers who only have a barrel, or two or three barrels to pack for 
market. They may be packed in anything that is clean and handy, 
boxes, barrels, jars, nail keg^, tubs, pails, etc. The eggs for this method 
of preserving, as for all others, shou'd be fresh, clean and uncracked. 
Cover the bottom of the barrel, or whatever you pack in, with three 
inches of salt; upon this place the eggs, on end. and far enough apart 
so that they will not touch each other, or the sides of the barrel ; then 
cover entirely with salt, put on another layer of eggs as before, and so on 
until the box or barrel is full. Keep them in the cellar, and do not turn 
the package as some poultry writers recommend. When the eggs are 
packed on end, as they should be, the turning of the package upside 




08 THE EXCELSIOR POTTLTRT BOOK. 

down every few days is not only useless work, but positively injurious 
to the eggs. We have tried both ways, and know whereof we write. 
We have kept eggs thus packed from the middle of April until the mid- 
dle of October, in a cellar where the temperature ranged from 50 to 60 
degrees, and they were good, every one of them, at the expiration of 
that time. At another time we put ajar of eggs in the cellar the last of 
October, and there they remained untouched until the next June, when 
we took them out. They were not "as good as fresh laid eggs," and we 
didn't expect they would be ; but still they were good ; the whites were 
not so thick and firm as those of fresh eggs, but the yolks were in good 
shape, and had not stuck to the shell, and the eggs beat up "light," 
though not so "frothv" as new laid eggs. 

If a cellar is very damp the salt will be apt to melt and settle down so 
as to leave the eggs exposed, but most farm house cellars are dry enough 
to keep eggs packed in salt, if the packages are set up from the cellar 
bottom. 

The item of salt enough to pack several barrels of eggs looks large on 
the debit side of the account, and probably the cost of salt is one of the 
reasons why this method is not more generally used ; but after all the 
salt method is not so expensive in the long run as seems at first thought, 
for the same Fait can be used over and over again. The grade of salt 
used is that known as coarse fine. 

Other Methods.— Farmers and poultry raisers who have or can have a 
dry, clean cellar, where the temperature will not go above 55°, can keep 
eggs for fully three months, perhaps longer, by set'ing them on end in 
racks made for the purpose. It does not matter how the racks are made 
— any way that will hold the eggs in place will do. The usual way is to 
bore H inch holes in boards, and then slip these boards into frames that 
will hold them like shelves, one above another. 

Eggs packed in perfectly dry bran, oats, corn meal, coal ashes, etc , and 
kept in a cool, perfectly dry cellar, have kept good from three to five 
months, and might have kept longer had we continued the experiment. 
But when these packing materials were used and the packages put in a 
damp cellar, the eggs at the end of three months had various disagree- 
able flavors, according to the packing material used, and as many of the 
shells were discolored, the looks as well as the taste were injured. Eggs 
that were packed in salt at the same time, and kept in the same cellar, 
were all right at the end of four months, when we took them out. The 
cellar was not very damp — only moderately so during wet spells of 
weather. 

There are various other methods, such as varnishing, coating with 
melted wax, gum-arabic, packing in jars and covering with melttd lard, 
etc , but while some of these methods may keep the eggs good as long 
as it is profitable to hold them, they require too much work to make 
them profitable for the large packers to use; and there is no sense in 
the housekeeper taking so much trouble, when the eggs can be so easily 
and safely packed in salt. 

ABOUT SELLING PRESERVED EGGS. 
Now about marketing these preserved eggs: Don't hold them too 
long. It is better usually to sell in November and December than to 
wait longer. You certainly should not hold preserved eggs until Feb- 
ruary, and along into March, as 1 have known some inexperienced pack- 



GEO. D. STAHL, QVTSCV, ILLINOIS. 69 

ers to do. After the middle of January the prices of preserved eggs go 
down hill in proportion as fresh eggs come into market. 

And don't try to sell your preserved eggs for anything except just 
what they are. When you send a consignment to your commission 
merchant mark the package plainly "Preserved Eggs," and in the letter 
which should always be sent when the eggs are shipped, or one mail be- 
fore, you should also state that they are preserved eggs. Of course the 
men who inspect the eggs upon arrival will know as soon as they see 
eggs that they are not fresh laid, but your stating in the letter that they 
are preserved eggs, and so marking the packages, will show that you are 
honest — and not trying to pass off preserved eggs as fresh. 

When shipping by express it is advisable to put a duplicate of the 
letter sent by mail in one of your packages, and mark this package 
"Bill" on outside. This advice about the letter of advice holds good 
when you are shipping anything, fresh eggs, preserved eggs, dressed 
poultry, or any kind of produce to be sold by a commission house, for 
it vexes commission men to receive a consignment without any letter of 
advice. 

A WORD OF WARNING. 

Every year or two somebody, sometimes several somebodies, who are 
anxious to get a living without honestly working for it, advertise some 
"new and infallible recipe" which they claim will preserve eggs for any 
length of time so perfectly that no one can tell them from fresh laid 
eggs. Thousands of these receipts are sold at prices ranging from one to 
ten dollars, but instead of being "new and infallible," they are new and 
worthless, or else some of the old and tried recipes which I have given 
here changed by the addition of a little of one or more substances that 
do not in any way add to the preservative qualities of the original 
recipe. There is a set of poultry "sharks" who make a business of doing 
this, and some of them have made thousands of dollars by it. A few 
years ago an Ohio man picked up a salt and lime recipe in an agricultu- 
ral paper, copied it, adding a little baking soda and saltpetre to the 
original recipe, had five thousand of them printed, advertised them as 
some new method, and in less than two years sold them all at $3 apiece. 
Unless you have money to throw away, don't send anybody a cent for 
any so-called new method of preserving eggs. Of course it is not un- 
likely that some better method than any we now know of may be dis- 
covered, but when it is it will not be advertised ; the fortunate man or 
woman who discovers it will hold on to it until he or she gets rich 
enough out of it, and then it will either be given outright to the public, 
or sold to some other person or firm, who will in turn guard the* secret 
aa long as it is their interest to do so. 



CHAPTER VI. 

WHICH TELLS HOW TO HATCH AND RAISE CHICKENS BY THE 

OLD HEN METHOD. 

Care of the Breeding Slock. — To insure eggs that will, under the proper 
conditions, give strong, healtny chickens, the breeding stock must be 
strong and healthy. Give your bieeding fowls as much range as pos- 
sible. If obliged to confine them to the limits of the house and a small 
yard, force them to exercise by scattering their grain in litter in the 
house and shed, and around the yard, when practicable. Do not over- 
feed; give them enough to keep the hens in good laying order, but no 
more. Do not give them any "egg-food ; " eggs from fowls that have 
been run on the high pressure plan do not usually hatch well, and the 
chicks that do get out of their shells are a weak lot. If you keep a 
large flock of fowls chit fly for the purpose of producing eggs for mar- 
ket, you will of course want them to produce as many eggs as possible 
in fall and winter, when ihe eggs rtmmsnd high j ri<ts, n d will do 
your level best to induce them to shell out through the high price sea- 
son ; in that case keep the fowls that you intend to breed from separ- 
ate from the main flock, and avoid giving food and condiments that 
will stimulate egg-production. 

Do not overdo the rooster business. Too many roosters in one flock, 
or two few hens with one rooster, is as bad as not enough ; in fact too 
many roosters are worse than not enough, for when the number of 
male birds is out of all proportion to the number of females in the 
flock, the hens are so worried by the everlasting attentions of the 
roosters thatthey beeomedis°;usted, mad, and dodge them entirely. For 
the non-sitting breeds, and the Plymouth Rockp, Wyandottes, Domin- 
iques, and Javas, cne rooster to every twenty hens is enough when the 
fowls are on free range ; but when confined to yards there should be 
one rooster to every dozen or fourteen hens. For the Asiatic breeds, 
one rooster to every fifteen hens when the floik has full liberty; other- 
wise one rooster to ten hens. If you have only a pair or trio of thor- 
ough bred fowls that you want to breed from, put with them a few 
common hens that lay eggs of a different color, or else keep the rooster 
away from the hens except for a few hours each day. I used to have 
a notion that it was a good plan to keep the sexes apart until within 
ten days or so of the time when the eggs were wanted for incubation, 
but I have entirely recovered from that notion. I found out by expe- 
rience that when the roosters were with the hens right along for a 
month or six weeks before the eggs were wanted for incubation, nearly 
every egg was fertile ; while, on the other hand, when a strange rooster 
was put with the hens only ten days or so previous to the time of using 
the eggs for setting, a laige per cent of the eggs were unfertile ; there- 
fore, when you have to buy male birds, I advise you to buy early— in 
the fall, if possible — but certainly early enough so that they can be 
with the hens at least a month before you set any eggs. When you 
raise your breeding stock, let the sexes run together right along after 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUIXCY, ILLINOIS. 71 

the moulting season is over. "When your fowls are once mated, do not, 
unless absolutely necessary, change rooster durirg the hatching staeon; 
but if obliged to do so, do not, if you want the eggs to hatch liue to the 
new mating, set the eggs laid during the first ten days after the change 
of male birds. 

Selection of Eggs. — In selecting eggs for hatching, reject all that are 
misshapen, those that are so much larger than the average that they 
evidently contain double yolks, those ihat are under the average size 
for the breed, and those that have very thin shells. Smooth-*urfactd, 
well-proportioned, firm-shelled eggs, neither over nor under the usual 
size for the variety, are aiways the best for hatching; and if poultry 
raiders would always bear this in mind, there would be less disappoint- 
ment in the hatching of eggs. E^rgs from second and laler litters are 
better for batching thau those of the first litter laid by a pullet. 

The Sex of Eggs.— The notions which some people cherish, and which 
travel tne rounds of the poultry and agricultural press regularly every 
season, in regard to distinguisbirg the sex of tbe eggs by means of the 
shape position of the air-cell, wrinkles on the end, etc., are but "no- 
tions," and "nothing more." It is impossible for any one to tell be- 
forehand whether an egg will hatch a pullet or cockerel. I speak 
positively because I have made many experiments in order to find out 
if it were possible to distinguish the "rooster eggs" from the "pullet 
eggs." In the early days of my poultry pilgrimage so many farmers 
and farmer**' wives, who had raised chickens more years than I. had 
lived, told me that they knew the round eggs always produced pollets, 
and the longish eggs roosters, that I half believed there must be some- 
thing in it; so I set five hens on thirteen round eggs apiece. A few 
days later another old poultry raiser said that was "all nonsense;" that 
"the biggest eggs always hatched roosters, and the smaller ones pul- 
lets." 1 set the next four hens on "smallish" eggs. Then a man said 
the smooth eggs hatched pullets, and those with wrinkles on the end 
hatched cockerels. That was a 'new wrinkle" to me, but he was a big 
man, and as I always had a good deal of confidence in big men, I next 
set three hens on eggs that were entirely innocent of wrinkles on the 
ends or anywhere else. Next I read somewhere that the position of 
the air-celi decided the question of sex— that the eggs which had the 
air-cell right in the end contained the male germ, while those that had 
the air-cell a little to one side contained the female germ. I couldn't 
see what under the sun the air-cell had to do with if, but I setthenext 
hens on eggs that had the air-cells in the proper place for pullets. A 
few days afterward I happened to think that I had set all pullet eggs, 
and that a few roosters might be handy to have in the poultry family ; 
so I at once set two old hens that were trying to hatch some china nest 
eggs on thirteen "rooster" eggs apiece. Some of the eggs were pointed, 
some had wrinkles and some had the air cell on the end. 

In due time the hens that were set on " pullet" eggs came off with 
chicks, and most of the chicks grew up ; but alas ! for my hopes of all 
pullets. Out of the 200 chickens that grew up over one half were 
roosters ! The two hens that were set especially for roosters hatched 
twenty-one chickens, twenty of which we raised. Nine of the twenty 
were pullets. The next season we were told by an " authority" that 
for pullets we must set eggs from young hens mated with an old 
rooster. We bought some three-year-old roosters and mated them with 



72 THE EXCELSIOR rOTTLTRY BOOK. 

one-year-old hens. "Now," said I, "we will have all the pullets we 
want;" but the wise man said, "Don't count your pullets until they are 
hatched." I didn't; I waited until some of the chickens began to'crow 
and in other ways conduct themselves as no pullets of my acquaintance 
ever did before. Then I counted them, and found that seven more 
than half were roosters. Since then I have made many experiments 
in the same line, but no matter whether the eggs were selected for 
roo3ters or pullets, or taken "just as it happened," they always panned 
out about the same— sometimes a few more roosters than pullets, and 
sometimes a few less — but taking the whole season through, the sexes 
were usually pretty evenly divided. 

Care of the Eggs.— la cold weather gather the eggs often enough to 
prevent them from getting chilled. If they are soiled, wipe them with 
a damp cloth. Keep them in the cellar or in some other place where 
they will be in a tolerably even temperature, but not where they will 
chill, or where they will be so warm that they will soon spoil. If they 
are to be put under the hen in two or three days it will not be neces- 
sary to turn them, but if they must be kept a week or more turn them 
every other day. Do not keep them too long. A fair per cent of eggs 
that are four or five weeks old will hatch, provided they were fertile 
to begin with and were properly cared for, but the strongiest, healthiest 
chicks come from eggs that are not over two weeks old at the outside. 

Have a riace for (he Sillers— Do not allow your hens to sit just where 
they take a notion, unless indeed they take a notion to sit in some 
place where there will be no daEger of their being molested by the 
other fowls. If you allow a hen to sit where the laying hens can dis- 
turb her, they will, in nineteen cases out of twenty, "improve the oc- 
casion." As soon as the layers find out a nest has been appropriated 
for family purposes, the majority of them will, by some strange per- 
versity of ben nature, conclude that that paiticular nest be the very 
best to lay in. So tbev seek to take forcible possession ; the sitter ob- 
jects, and the result is broken eggs, and a state of things generally that 
inspires the poultry raiser with a wild desire to wring the neck of 
every hen on the place. If you have a poultry house wiih a passage- 
way runningalong the length of the building, and the nests so arranged 
that they can be turned around to face into the passage, you are all 
right ; you have only to turn the net t around, and then your sitter is 
where the laying hens cannot annoy her. If your house has no con- 
venient passage-way, and you have no separate building or room that 
you can use for the sitting hens, you can easily make a separate room 
by putting a partition of lath or of wire netting across one end of your 
poultry house. One season 400 of our early chickens were hatched in 
a lOx 12 room thus partitioned off one end of one of the houses. We 
had 30 sitting hens in there at one time — part of them sitting in boxes 
that were on a wide platform that ran around three sides of the room, 
the rest in boxes under the platform. We found this arrangement of 
having the sitting hens all together in one place much more convenient 
than when we bad them scattered around in different places. 

How to Prepare the Nest and Set the Hen. — Put a few inches of earth in 
the bottom of the nest box ; hollow it out a little in the middle, so that 
the eggs will not roll away to the corners of the box, but not so much 
that they will pile up in the middle, cover the earth with some broken 
straw, fine hay or chaff, dead leaves or dry grass, amoug which scatter 



GEO. H. STAITL, QTTCXCT, ILLINOIS. 73 

some tobacco leaves, snuff, fine cut tobacco, or sulphur, as a preventative 
against lice ; then put in four or five nest eggs, and the nest is ready 
for the sitter. But don't move the hen to the new nest the very first 
night when you find her on the nest when she should be on the roost ; 
just let her sit on the old nest a day or two until she fully decides that 
she wants to sit three weeks. Then when sitting fever is well on, 
remove her after dark to the nest you have prepared for her, place her 
on the nest eggs, fasten a board in front of the nest, leave it there until 
after dark the next evening, and then remove it. In nearly every case 
the hen will accept the situation— i. e., if she is reasonably tame, and 
you handle her gently,— come off the next morning when you feed and 
water the sitter, eat her breakfast, "arrange her toilet," and return to 
her nest; then you may safely remove the nest eggs, and give her the 
eggs that you want transformed into chickens. But if she refuses to 
return to the nest within a reasonable time, put her back, and fasten 
her in for another day and night. At the end of that time she will 
either be reconciled, or so mad that she won't sit at all. 

When we depended upon hens to do the hatching, and did not have 
sitters enough of our own, we bought silting hens of neighbors, and 
moved them to her place, and in but one case out of a hundred or more 
did we fail to induce the strange hen to stick to her business in her 
new quarters. 

Whenever possible, set two or more hens at the same time, bo that 
when the chicks come out you can give all the chicks to one, two or 
three hens, according to the number of hens and chicks, and let the 
other hens return to the laying flock ; or if you are short of sitters you 
can set the extra hens again on another clutch of eggs. If properly 
cared for a hen can sit six weeks, and come off in good health. 

The number of eggs which should be placed under each sitter must 
be determined by the season of the year, the size of the hen and the 
size of the eggs. Very early in the season not more than ten or eleven 
eggs should be given even to a large hen ; later, after the first of April, 
give thirteen or fourteen ; and still later, a hen of average Plymouth 
Rick size may have fifteen or sixteen. 

Your nest boxes should all have a number marked plainly on them ; 
then when you set a hen you should note down the date when chicks 
are due from that number. 

Care of the Silting Hens. — When you give the hen the eggs, and again 
about ten days before the chicks are due, dust her thoroughly with 
either sulphur or insect powder, taking extra pains to get it well into 
the feathers on the under part of the body. Besides taking this 
precaution against lice, you should also have a dust bath in the room 
where the sitlers can dust themselves. 

Feed and water the sitters regularly at least once a day, at just about 
the same time each day ; then they will expect you at that time, and 
will usually come off promptly about as soon as you get the feed into 
the feed dishes. Give only grain to sitting hens, and the drink should 
be water, not milk. While your hens are eating, drinking, dusting 
themselves, etc., you should remain in the room, and take the 
opportunity to see that the eggs are all right. If you find any broken, 
and the other eggs and nesting soiled, "spot" that nest, and as soon as 
possible after the hens are back on duty you must put new nesting in 
the nest^and carefully wash the daubed eggs in warm water. In cold 



74 



TIIE EXCELSIOR POT7LTRY BOOK. 




weather this must be done as quickly as possible in order that the j 
eggs may not be chilled. 

When your bens are ready to go back to their nests, see that each 
hen goes to her own nest. When the nest boxes are all alike in shape 
and size, it is well to paint the front of each one a different color so 
that the hens can the more readily 
distinguish one ne6t from another. 
You needn't laugh at the idea; I 
have tried it and know that the 
hens did not make half as many 
mistakes in getting back to their 
nests as they did before. If at any 
time some ot'your hens won'tcome 
off to eat, let them alone. 'Any 
hen that has sense enough to sit, 
knows enough to eat when she is 
htiDgry. and she probably knows 
ig ' ' when she is hungry a good deal 

better than you do. We have had a good many hens that would only 
come off every other day. and they did just as well in the hatching 
line as those that came off regularly every day. 

When your hens are all back in their proper places, remove 
the food that is left, empty the water dishes and put all away, for if 
you leave food and drink in sight some of the hens may take a notion 
to come off when you are not there, go onto the wrong nest, and "raise 
Cain" generally. Remove the droppings of the setting hens each day 
after they are back on their ne6ts; otherwise the room will soon 
become foul smelling. Keep a supply of gravel, crushed oyster shells, 
and crushed charcoal in the room where the sitters can help themselves. 
Test the Eggs. — It is a great advantage to test the eggs on the fifth day 
of incubation, for as sitting bens are sometimes scarce when wanted 
most, you can, by tei-ting the eggs and throwing out those that are un- 
fertile make room for more eggs. When several hens have been set 
at one time, all the fertile eggs can 
be given to some of the hens, and 
the other hens given a tresh lot. 
And even when sitting hens are 
plenty it is well to throw out the 
unfertile eggs, for it leaves more 
room in the nest for those that re- 
main. Testing eggs is a very sim- 
ple matter; all you have to do is to 
hold the eggs, one at a time, be- 
tween your eye and a strong light, 
and determine by the appearance 
of the inside whether it contains 
a live embryo, a dead one, or is 'barren," i.e., never been fertilized. At 
the first testing,' on the fifth day, the barren eggs look like Fig. 1— light 
and clear, like a fresh egg. These eggs will not hatch at all, and should 
be at once removed from the nest, and put away in a cool place, to use 
for food for the chicks. Fig. 2 shows about how a fertile egg (one with 
a live embryo) will look when viewed through the tester at the fifth day. 
You will see a small dark spot, with tiny red veins radiating through 




GEO. H. STAITL, QTTIXCY, ILLIXOIS. 



75 



it. It somewhat resembles a spider with legs of different lerjgtbs. 
When the embryo is dead, the egg will look mere like Fig. 3— the 
veins will appear broken and cloudy, not clear and distinct as in the 
live embryo. Sometimes the dark spot will be found adhering to the 
shell. These eggs wiil soon be rot- 
ten and offensive. When you are 
in doubt as to whether the embryo 
is alive or dead, mark the egg and 
put it back until the next testing, 
which should be on thetenth day. 
At this second testing the live 
embryo will look something like 
Fig 4, and if you hold the egg per- 
fectly still you can see the embryo 
move. The dead embryo will be 
motionless, without much sem- 




blance of form — sometimes not 



Fig. 3. 




any ; it depends upon how long it has been dead. At the third testing, 
on the fifteenth day, the live < hi< k will about fill the shell, and the 
greater part of it will look daik, like Fig. 5. The eggs that are no good 
— well, you can smell them if the 
germ has been dead several days. 
We do not pretend to say that the 
illustrations of eggs are exactly 
"true to life," but they wiil give 
you a better idea of how the eggs 
look than could be conveyed by 
words alone. They were prepared 
expressly for 1'he Ohio Farmer, and 
it is owing to the courtesy of the 
editor of that paper that we are 
enabled to give our readers the 
benefit of them. About the egg- 
tester: You can buy one for twenty-five or thirty cent->,or you can make 
one. Get a wooden or a pasteboard box large enough to hold a small 
kerosene lamp; cut a hole in the top and another, about the size of an 
egg, in one side, just where it will 
come opposite the (lame when the 
lamp islighted. Hinge the oppo- 
site side, so that it can be uted as 
a door; or, if that is too much 
bother, throw a dark cloth over 
that side after your lamp is in. Set 
the lamp in so that the hole in the 
top will be exactly over the top of 
the chimney, then there will be no 
smoking. Partly darken the room 
and hold eggs between the hole in 
the side of the box and your eye. Fig. 5. 

Not Necessary to Sprinkle the Eggs during Incubation. — For a long time I 
firmly believed that unless a htn was set on the ground it was abso- 
lutely necessary that the eggs should be sprinkled with warm water 
every day during the last ten days of incubation; anyway, I faithfully 





76 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

sprinkled the eggs when the hens were off for their feed, and as I us- 
ually obtained good hatches I took it for granted that the sprinkling Had 
something to do with it, and never thought of questioning the "author 
ities" who said it was necessary. But after a little, old, mongrel hen 
laid sixteen eggs in a box of scrap-iron the wood-shed, and hatchet 
fifteen chicks from them, anc 
another hen, calmly ignoring 
the tradition concerning mois 
ture, sneaked into the barn anc 
4 laid fourteen eggs in a pile c 
I straw that was as dry as a paten 
I office report, and then hatchec 
§ every one of them ; and other 
' foolish and conceited old hens 
Fig ^ c and perverse pullets stole their 

nestsin all sortsof places — some 
on the ground, some high and dry in the hay-loft, some in old barrels 
and boxes in the wood-shed, and all alike hatched nearly every egg, T 
arrived at the conclusion that sprinkling Ihe eggs was all nonsense — i 
foolish waste of time— and just quit; and the eggs hatched just as well 
as before. 

CHICKEN COOPS. 

If you are wise in your day and generation, you will if possible find 

time along through the winter to get the chicken coops ready for use 

when wanted; anyway you will have them ready by the time the 

chicks are due to hatch. 

I am not very particular about the shape of a chicken coop, provided 
it is a decent looking affair, but I am particular about the size. It 
makes me mad to see a hen confined in a coop so small that she can't 
turn around without 
bumping her head 
against the top, hit- 
ting her elbows on 
the sides, and step- 
ping on some of her 
family. I believe that 
a coop for a hen and 
a good sized brood of 
chickens should have 
fully four square feet 
of ground room, and 
be high enough in thf ^ 
center, so that the~ 
hen can stand upright ' l °' ' 

when she wants to. Fig. 6 in this chapter is an illustration of a "barrel 
coop, but it should not be made of a common flour barrel, simply be- 
cause a barrel of that size is not large enough. Use a hogshead, lard 
tierce, or a kerosene barrel. Here are the directions which the genius 
who invented this coop gave for making it: 

"Nail every hoop on each side of a seam or line between the staves, 
with an inch nail; clinch nails are best; after nailing the hoops all 
tight, saw off the hoops on each side of the seam. This leaves you 
with two half barrels, or half circles, each of which will make a fine 




GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 



77 




coop. The pieces that formed the bottom (or top) of the barrel can be 
nailed in aeain at the back end of this novel coop, and the upper part 
should be fastened with leather hinges, so as to open at pleasure ; bore 
a few augur holes in the back for ventilation. Nail two parallel laths 
on the front, to fasten the slats to, make two of the latter to slide in 

and out; make a floor of 
rough boards to stand the 
barrel on, just a trifle small- 
er than the latter, so that 
rain will be shed outside on 
the ground. A coat of thick 
paint, or some waterproof 
roofing, tacked on will com- 
plete as nice a coop as any 
one need want, and at little 
or no expense." 

Fig. 7 shows a "good old- 
fashioned coop," with some 
modern improvements. The 
illustration shows so plainly how the coop is made lhat no description 
is needed. Fig. 8 showsanother old-fashioned coop; Fig. 9 shows a new- 
fashioned one that is ornamental as well as usefull. The upper half 
of the front is of wire netting, which admits air and light, while the 
projecting! roof keeps out sun and rain. The lower half is made of 
perpendicular slats, placed far enough apart to allow the chicks to pass 
in and out. Hinged to the bottom of coop in front is a door, which 
can be turned up over the slat front and fastened with a wooden "but- 
ton," or with a hook, making all secure at night. Fig. 10 shows a box 
coop with a^small lath 
pen in front. Fig. 1 1 
shows a good style 
coop, with a run of 
wire netting; and Fig. 
12 shows a desirable 
coop with a run made 
of lath. The lath in 
this run, like those* in 
the pen shown in Fig. 
10, are placed far 
enough apart to allow 
the chicks to pass in 
and out, but still near 
enough tocon^ne the 
hen, and to prevent 
other fowls and older Fi O- 0. 

chickens from entering. You will find these runs handy to have in 
front of any coop, for they give you a chance to feed the little chicks 
where the mother ben, other fowls or half grown chickens cannot gob- 
ble up the food prepared expressly for the little fellows. By using ihe 
wire netting, or by putting the laths closer together, you can, when 
necessary, keep the chicks from wandering around in wet weather. 

These coops can be made with or without floors. Do not have floors 
unless necessary on account of cold and dampness, or to keep rats cut. 




78 



TITE EXCOLSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 



If you must have a floor cover it two or three inches deep with sand or 
earth. A coop with a bare board floor is not a fit place for either hen 
or chickens, and the man or woman who compels a hen to keep house 
in such a place ought to be fined for cruelty to animals. 

The coops that have no floors should be moved to a fresh spot of 
ground ofcen enough to keep them clean, — say once a week, at least; 
and those with board floors should have the floor scraped and fresh 
earth put in as often as once a week. 




Fig. 10. 

If you have an orchard anywhere within reasonable distance of the 
farm buildings, that is the place to coop your hens with chii-ks. If that 
be not practicable coop them near the corn field, potato field, and near 
the vegetable garden. Anyway, don't huddle them up within a rod of 
the back door. Better go some little distance from the house to feed 
them than to have them too near, Chickens around a dwelling house 
yard are a perfect nuisance. 

If you try to raise any very early chickens with hen mothers, you 
must coop them in a house, or in a shed that can be closed up in 
stormy weather. 



P 



Fig. 11. 

Coops that have been once used should be thoroughly whitewashed, 
or else as thoroughly wet with coal oil, before another hen 6ets up 
housekeeping in it. Strict attention to this point will save much 
trouble from lice. 

After you are through with the coops for the season, put them some- 
where under cover if possible, if not, put them all together in some 
place where they will not be in the way, instead of leaving them 
scattered "all over the lots" just where they were used last. 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 79 

HOW TO FEED AND CARE FOR THE CHICKENS. 
When the chicks are coming out of the shell they should under all 
ordinary circumstances be let alone. Sometimes a hen will be restless 
and tramp about in the nest when she feels the chicks nestling under 
her, and in such cases it will be well to remove the chicks from the 
nest as soon as dry, aod keep them in a warm place in the house until 
all are hatched. Or if you want to reset a hen, you will have to re- 
move her chicks as soon as they are hatched and dry, in o'der to pre- 
vent her from getting out of the notion of sitting longer. But generally 
speaking, the more you let a hen alone at hatching time the better she 
will do. To prevent the hens whose chicks are just coming out from 
coming off to feed when you feed the others, go to the hens that are 
due and give them some corn before you feed the others; then shut 
them in their neets until after the others are through, and the feed 
removed. When the hen is not bothered too much, she will usually 
stay on the nest until all the chicks are out, and for about twelve hours 



/T 




Fig. 13. 

afterwards. By the end of that time the chicks will be poking out 
from under the hen to see what is going on in the outside world, and 
the whole family should then be removed to the coop. Now is your 
time, if you want to give a hen any chicks besides those she hatched, 
to slip the ex'ra chicks in with her's before she has a chance to count 
her family. If you slip the extra chicks under her just before she 
leaves the nesr, or just after she eettles down in the coop, she will 
never know but that she hatched them all. Sometimes a dark hen 
will object to mothering a single white chick, even though she hatched 
it, but if given a half dozen or more white chicks she will mother them 
all. And I have had white hens that wouldn't own a black chick, but 
such cranky hens are not common; generally a hen will mother all 
the chirks you give her if you double up the broods at the right time. 

But because a hen is willing to adopt some extra chickens don't give 
her all that she can possibly stretch her wings over; from fifteen to 
twenty, according to the size of the hen and the season, will do much 
better than a larger family. 

When removing the hen and her brood to the coop is the time to use 
more lice preventatives. If you nrepared the nest powdered the hen, 
and had a dust bath handy, as I told you, the hen and chicks wil x 
probably come from the nest free from lice, but all the same you shoul _ 



80 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

examine both hen and chicks, and if you find any lice, dust the hen 
with insect powder before you put her inio the coop; then when she 
gathers the chicks under her they will get their share from her 
feathers. But whether you find any lice or not, put a drop of keroFene 
on the head of each chick as a preventative against the big head lice. 
The quickest and best way to apply it is to have some in an old cup, 
and as you pick up each chick just dip the tip of the forefinger in the 
kerosene and rub it on the top of the chick's head, taking care not to 
get too much of the oil, and to keep it out of the eyes. Just a twitch 
is sufficient. 

The Food. — Don't be in a hurry to feed the chickens as soon as you 
find they are out of the shell. They don't need food the first day, and 
won't eat unless it is actually forced down them. The yolk ol the egg 
which is absorbed just before the chick leaves the shell affords sufficient 
nourishment for the first twenty or twenty-four hours, and if you force 
food down a chick soon after hatching the chances are that you will 
kill it. 

Time was when I firmly believed that chicks must be fed for the 
first two or three days on the regulation "hard boiled eggs and bread 
crumbs," mixed one-third eggs to two-thirds bread crumbs; and I 
faithfully prepared such food for all the chickens that came into the 
word on our place, until — well, I just got tired of it, and went to 
experimenting. My experiments turned out so well — the chickens 
were so strong, and grew so fast, and there was so little sickness among 
them, that I do not hesitate to declare that the "boiled egg and bread 
crumb" food is not necessary; one thing sure, I shall never fool away 
any more time boiling eggs and rubbing them up in bread crumbs. 

For the "first meal," wet up corn-meal and shorts — two parts of 
meal to one of shorts — with either milk or water enough to make a 
pretty stiff dough, reason with a little salt, pepper and soda, and bake 
the loaf slowly until done. Crumble the inside of this' johnny cake" 
and feed it dry; pour a little water on the outside crust and soak it just 
enough so it will crumble. Keep the chicks on this food for the first 
three days; then give corn-meal and shorts — three parts of meal to one 
of shorts — scalded to make a Miff, crumbly dough, and seasoned lightly 
with salt and repper. Sometimes, say once or twice a week, give oat 
meal in place of the shorts ; and sometimes use boiled potatoes, and 
table scraps mixed up with corn-meal. After the chicks are a week or 
ten days old, mix in either oil meal or ground beef scraps — a heaping 
tablespoonful of either to each pint of meal before scalding. Twice a 
week mix in either Imperial Egg Food, or Sheridan's Condition Pow- 
der, in the proportion of a heaping tablespoonful to every fifty chick- 
ens; and on two other days in a week throw in, once a day, a handful 
of bone meal for the same number of chickens. The Condition Powder 
or Egg Food promotes early feathering, and helps keep the digestive 
organs in good order, while the bone meal tends to prevent leg weak- 
ness. When you give either the Powder or the Egg Food, leave out 
the salt and pepper. This scalded dough should be allowed to get 
nearly cold before feeding. It is a good plan to mix the morning feed 
up the night before. 

When the chicks are ten days old begin feeding cracked corn and 
wheat, and as soon as they eat it readily make it the last meal at night. 

Fcr the first month feed your chickens five times a day regularly— 



GEO. H. STAHL, QTJINCY, ILLINOIS. 



81 



the first feed as soon as possible after sunrise, the last just before dark. 
After the first month, four times a day until the hen weans them. Give 
what they will eat up clean each time, and don't waste the soft food by 
throwing it on the ground, where it will be trod into the dirt and a 
good deal wasted. Have some shallow feed troughs, or feed on clean 
pieces of board. 

After the hen weans the chicks, don't leave them to scramble for 
their food among the older fowls. Give them a good feed of the scalded 
meal and shorts, etc., in the morniDg, and keep craoked corn, wheat 
and oats where they can help themselves through the day. At night 
a full feed of the grain. 

To prevent the old fowls from appropriating the food meant for the 
chicks, put in under a feed rack made like Fig. 13. When it rains lay 
some boards over the top ; or you can make them with a board top in- 
stead of using the lath. 




Fig. 13. 

Drink. — Don't give your chickens any drink the first week or two ; 
they are just as well off without it — perhaps better. After that, keep 
water or skim milk where they can get it when they want it. For 
young chicks have the drink in shallow vessels, so that if they get in 
they can get out again. Put a stone as big as your fist in the middle of 
each dish, which will keep the dish right side up and in place. 

Gravel and Oyster Shells. — Lack of gravel is a fruitful cause of indi- 
gestion among young chicks that are kept on a clayey soil, and lack of 
lime food is in many cases the sole cause of leg weakness in chickens 
from two to three months old ; therefore, unless the soil on your farm 
be naturally gravelly, keep your young chickens supplied with gravel, 
and keep toe crushed oyster shells handy anyway. It is easier and 
cheaper to do this than it is to cure indigestion or brace up weak legs. 

Green Food. — Chickens that do not get into the world until about the 
time the grass starts, and are allowed full liberty all, or the greater part 
of the time, will find all the green food they need; but if you hatch 
any before the grass starts you must, in addition to other food, furnish 
a daily supply of green food of some kind until they can get at the 
grass. Chopped cabbage, and onion and lettuce, mixed in with the 
dough, will fill the bill. Oats and grass seed can be sown thickly in 
shallow boxes of earth, and when three or four inches high cut and fed 
the same way. A regular supply of green food of some kind is one of 
the things that early chicks must have in order to keep them in good 
health. 



82 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

Meat. — Where a large number of chickens are raised, meat must be 
fed right along, as I directed you to mix in with this scalded food, even 
though the chickens have liberty to wander where they please; but if 
only a few broods are raised, the meat may be dropped after the chicks 
are three weeks old, for they will pick up enough insects to supply all 
the meat food they will need. Of 
course, very early chickens must 
have meat supplied regularly until 
the weather is warm enough to 
start the early bug and worm. 
~ Give them Range. — For the first 

" three days the chicks and hen 
should be confined to the limits of 
the coop and run; then the chicks 
should be allowed to go in and 
out at will, except on very rainy 
days while they are still small, 
when they should be confined to 
the coop and run. When the chicks 
are two weeks old, open the coop 
on pleasant mornings after the wet 
is nearly off the grass, and let the 
hen wander at will until night-fall 
— provided you have not growing 
. crops where she can injure them 
S by scratching. If you do not find 
d it practicable to thus give the hen 
i? liberty with her brood, let her out 
every day for a couple of hours or 
so before sundown. After the hen 
leaves them allow them free range 
for all the time until you market 
them, or put them into winter 
quarters. Chickens can be grown 
to the broiler age and size if kept 
confined to the limits of the house 
and yard, or even if confined 
wholly to the house, but if you 
would grow strong, healthy breed- 
ing stock, or fine pullets for layers 
the following fall and winter, you 
must give them range after they 
are about three months old ; and 
if you can give it as I have di- 
rected, before that age, all the 
better. 

After the Chickens are Weaned don't 
be in a hurry to crowd them into 
the poultry house. Let them remain in the nursing coop at night until 
they outgrow them; then either let them take to the trees, or colonize 
them in roosting sheds like the one shown by Fig. 14. 

If foxes or thieving cats are troublesome in your locality, make wire 
screen doors for each end of the shed, and then you can close it up 




GEO. H. STAHL, QULNCY, ILLINOIS. 83 

easily after the chicks have gone to roost. If there are neither owls nor 
ehicken thieves to molest your chickens, and you have an orchard 
where they can roost, I should advise the trees for a roosting place 
until cold weather in the fall. For two seasons our chickens roosted 
in the apple trees in our orchard from the time the left the nursing 
coops until the latter part of October, and they were an uncommonly 
fine lot of chickens. We didn't drive the chickens into the trees ; the 
coops were placed under and around the trees in the first place, and 
the chickens took to the trees when they got ready. 

A great deal of nonsense has been written about the liability of 
crooked breast-bones and wry tails in chickens that are allowed to 
roost until pretty well grown, but the truth of the matter is there is 
almost no danger of such "crookedness" when the perches are of the 
right size and shape. If you colonize the chicks put up broad, flat 
perches, so that the chicks can sit on them ; and have them placed so 
that the chicks will not be crowded against the side of the shed or 
wherever they roost. No, the branches of trees are not flat ; but when 
chicks take to a tree they will, if left to themselves, choose a limb on 
which they can rest comfortably. Out of nine hundred chickens 
raised one year, we had but one crooked breast-bone, and no wry tails, 
among all the chicks that roosted in trees or on broad, flat perches in 
the sheds, but wry tails were numerous among the chicks that were 
colonized in small houses without perches. 

Large Brahma and Cochin chickens must be colonized anyway, for 
it is not often that they will try to get into the trees to roost, unless the 
limbs are very near the ground. Put some 25 or 30 of about the same 
age in each shed. Don't huddle the sheds all together, but scatter them 
all over the lots. Move them occasionally, or else scrape off" the top of 
the earth under them, and throw in some fresh earth. To teach the 
chickens to roost in these sheds, take them from the coops after dark, 
put them in the sheds, and keep them shut in for three or four days. 
For convenience in feeding and watering, place a lath feeding rack at 
each end of the shed. Before you let them out move the coops from 
which they were taken away from the old places. The first time you 
let them out, let it be only an hour or two before sundown. Probably 
all will go back to the shed at roosting time ; but if not, you must 
ca ch them after dark, put them back, and keep them shut up for three 
or four days more. 

By the middle of October, at latest — the first would be better — the 
chickens that are to be wintered should be put in the poultry house. 
To accomplish this with but little trouble, go out after dark, with an 
assistant to hold a lantern, catch the chickens, put them in the house, 
shut them in for a week, and by the end of that time they will have 
forgotten all about their old roosting places. When you are catching 
the chickens, if you miss some, don't chase them over all creation and 
scare them out of a month's growth, just let them alone until the next 
night, and try again. 




Fig. I— BRONZE TURKEY. 






CHAPTER VII. 



Most farmers who undertake to raise a brood or so of turkeys, do so 
with a feeling of uncertainty as to the ultimate result. Still it is not a 
difficult matter to raise turkeys, provided one knows how; and turkey 
raising is certainly a very profitable branch of the poultry business. I 
have never seen the time when good, fat turkeys would not bring re- 
munerative prices. The first step to be taken towards success in turkey 
raising is to secure good breeding stock. The parent birds must be 
strong, healthy, of good size, and mature specimens. No greater mis- 
take could be made than that of buying inferior breeding stock, just 
because it can be obtained for less than the price asked for good, mature 
birds. When possible to avoid it, do not breed from a yearling gobbler; 
but when no other can be obtained select one of the earliest and largest 
of last season's hatch. Hens two years old and over, are better for 
breeders than those that are younger. 

In regard to the " best breed" — for that question is sure to come up as 
soon as one mentions chickens, ducks, geese, or turkeys — there is really 
not much choice, except in size. The Standard recognizes six different 
breeds: Bronze, White, Black, Buff, Slate, and Narraganset; and then 
there is the old fashioned mongrel variety, which isn't such a bad variety 
after all; but on account of the inferior size of the mongrels, they are 
not so profitable to raise for market as some of the larger breeds. 

Bronze turkeys are the largest and handsomest of the whole turkey 
tribe. The illustration, Fig. 1, is intended to represent a Bronze turkey, 
but no cut can do justice to their beauty. The main color of the plumage 
is, as the name indicates, bronze— dark in the shade, but when viewed 
in the sunlight each feather glistens like burnished gold. On account 
of their great size Bronze turkeys are great favorites with those who 
raise turkeys for market ; well-grown males of ttm breed will weigh 
from eighteen to twenty-two pounds alive, at six months, and the fe- 
males from ten to fourteen pounds at the same age. Mature gobblers 
will weigh from thirty to forty pounds, hens from eighteen to twenty- 
two pounds. They do not reach maturity until the third year. 

The White Holland ranks next to the Bronze, in size, and is an ex- 
cellent variety to raise for market. It is rapidly growing in favor with 
market poultry raisers. See Fig. 2. 

The Narragansets are very popular among the farmers of southern 
New England, where great numbers are annually raised for market. 
Their plumage is a rich metallic black, each feather ending in a broad, 
light steel-gray band edged with black. 

The other varieties are all good, but not so large as the three named. 
Farmers who have only common stock can, by mating 1 he hens with a 
gobbler of any of the larger varieties, produce good market birds. 

The breeding stock secured and mated (one gobbler to every ten or a 
dozen hens), which should be by the middle of January at latest, feed 
sparingly from that time until March. I don't mean starve them, but 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 87 

only give food enough to keep them in "gopd working order." Fat tur- 
keys will not lay so well as those that are thinner in flesh. Give green 
food and meat of some kind as often as four times a week after the first 
of February, and the hens will commence laying quite as early as it is 
desirable to have them. 

It is natural for turkeys to hide their nests, and while I believe in 
humoring their whims in that respect, I do not believe that it is neces- 
sary to allow them to wander a mile from the farm buildings and deposit 
their eggs where no living thing — except, perhaps, crows and foxes — can 
find them. Long experience with turkeys has convinced me that it is 
possible to induce them to lay pretty much where one wants them to. 
By much petting of our turkeys, and by never allowing them to be 
frightened or driven about by either man or beast, we have made them 
so tame that they will generally go into the hen house and lay in nests 
like any other sensible biddies ; but all this takes time and patience, 
and the average poultry raiser had better fix up nests in secluded places, 
not too near nor too far from the farm buildings. Don't make "nice" 
nests ; turkeys have a prejudice against "nice" nests that are prepared 
especially for them. An old barrel turned on its side in some secluded 
fence corner and partly covered~with brush, brush thrown carelessly 
around an old stump, and other such arrangements, suit turkeys ; and 
also delude them into the belief that they are hiding their nests. 

If the eggs are not allowed to accumulate in the nest, the turkey will 
lay from thirty to forty eggs before offering to sit. The eggs first laid should 
be set under hens. When the turkey has laid fifteen to twenty eggs and 
the danger of chilly nights is past, the eggs may be left in the nest as laid, 
and when the turkey gets ready she will go to work and hatch every 
one of them. If she concludes to sit before she has a nest full of eggs, 
fill it up with some of those that you have taken from her. A good- 
sized turkey will cover twenty eggs. It is a good plan to raise a few 
chickens with each brood, for when chickens and turkeys are raised to- 
gether the turkeys are less inclined to wander when young, are tamer, 
and when weaned will learn to come home at night with their foster 
brothers and sisters; And, besides, when turkeys and chickens are 
raised together, the grown turkeys seldom fight chickens. 

Don't set turkey eggs too early; as a general thing it is not advisable 
to have them hatch before the grass is well started. When the turkey 
hen sits in her own nest out of doors, let her alone. Some turkey raisers 
recommend taking the sitting turkey from her nest every day for feed 
and water, but we don't believe in it. Turkeys are close sitters, but 
they are not bent on starving themselves to death, and if left to act their 
own pleasure, they will usually come off every other day, and if they are . 
reasonably tame, they will come around the buildings for food. When 
possible set two or three turkeys at one time ; then, when they hatch, 
give all the young to one hen and the others will lay again. These late 
hatched turkeys will make fine birds for the late winter market. 

When the turkey eggs are set under hens, follow the same directions 
that have already been given for preparing nests for sitting hens. 

When the young turkeys are first hatched let them severely alone 
for the first twenty-four hours ; they do not need food before the expira- 
tion of that time, and, as they are delicate at first, handling injures them; 
in fact, a good many are killed outright by much handling while they 
are very young. When they are twenty-four hours old the turkeys will 



88 THE EXCELSIOK TOULTRY BOOK. 

be quite strong on their feet, and with the mother should be removed to 
a coop, which should be clean and dry, and have a board floor covered 
with sand or gravel. 

The first food for young turkeys should be the same as for young 
chickens; and for the first two weeks feed nothing else. The third 
week commence feeding ooked corn-meal. Do not give a full feed of 
meal at first, but add a little more each day until, at four and five weeks, 
they may be fed entirely on corn-meal, cooked potatoes, and about any 
cooked food that one would give to chickens of the same age. A very 
little cooked meat may be mixtd with the food once each day until they 
are big enough to forage for fresh meat; but when plenty of sour milk 
can be had, the meat is not necessary. Onion tops and lettuce chopped 
fine and mixed with the food is greatly relished by young turkeys, and is 
very beneficial dining the first few weeks. Never feed any raw meal to 
young turkeys; it should always be cooked for the first ten or twelve 
weeks. Feeding young turkeys raw meal, feeding meal too soon, and 
feeding grain before they are able to digest it will kill about one half of 
the number hatched. 

Feed young turkeys often, five or six times a day, until they are three 
months old. If you expect fine, large Jiirds for Thanksgiving you must 
keep them growing right straight along; full feed for the first three 
months will work a decided difference in the weight of the bird when 
market day comes. When they are three months old feed them cracked 
corn, wheat, oats, wheat screenings, etc , but no whole corn until cold 
weather. After the third month turkeys will, if insect food be abund- 
ant, pick up a good deal of their living, and so long as the insects hold 
out will thrive on two meals a day. 

Young turkeys must be kept dry and comfortable during the first ten 
or twelve weeks of their lives, or until they are fully feathered and have 
thrown out the red on their heads. Exposure to cold and wet, tramping 
about in the grass before the dew is otf, and damp, filthy coops, will thin 
out a flock of young turkeys with alarming rapidity. To keep the young 
turkeys out of the wet grass use the safety coops and runs, or else make 
a pen in front of the coop by placing wide boards on edge and fastening 
in position. The boards should be from fifteen to eighteen inches wide, 
and for a dozen young turkeys the pen should enclose some fifteen square 
feet. For a few days after the poults are hatched, whether you raise 
them with a hen mother or a turkey mother, they must be confined to 
this coop and pen; then if all appear strong and well, and the weather 
favorable, open the pen and give the young turkeys liberty after the sun 
has completely dried the dew off the grass. 

Should a sudden shower come up while your young turkeys are out 
in the fields, you must turn out and drive them to the coops. If any 
are chilled take them to the house, dry and warm them thoroughly, give 
them a good feed with plenty of ginger or red pepper in it, and then return 
to the mother hen. A good way to revive chilled turkeys is to dip them, 
all except the heads, in quite warm water, and hold them there until 
they show signs of life; then wrap them up, and keep in a warm place 
in the house until they are thoroughly warm and dry. 

See that your turkeys come home every night. A hen mother will 
bring her brood home at night-fall, but for the first few nights the tur- 
key mother must be hunted up and driven home, else she will squat 
down wherever night happens to overtake her, and get up in the morn- 



GEO. H. STAIIL, QTJINCY, ILLINOIS. 89 

ing and drag her brood around through the wet grass long before you 
think of getting out of bed. After you have driven her home a few 
nights she will probably come without any urging, especially if you al- 
ways give ber a good meal after she gets into the pen. 

After they are fully feathered and have thrown out the red on their 
heads, which usually occurs at about three months, young turkeys are 
quite hardy, and may be allowed unlimited range at all times. 

To fatten turkeys give them their accustomed range and all the cooked 
corn meal and potatoes they will eat up clean twice a day; plenty of grain 
at night, and milk to drink at all times. Mix a little pulverized charcoal 
in the food once a day. Three weeks of this feeding, and your turkeys 
will be in the best possible condition for the table ; that is, if they have 
been growing and in good condition from the start. Remember that no 
amount of stuffing for a few weeks just before killing, will make a prime, 
extra large, table or market bird out of a turkey that has been starved 
and stunted from the beginning. 



Ducks may be profitably kept on any farm that has a pond, swamp, 
or stream of running water within its limits, and is within reach of 
a city market; but the farmer who has not the advantage of a city 
market, can hardly make it pay to keep ducks unless he wants the eggs, 
meat and feathers for home use, or can sell the eggs lor fancy prices. 
In large cities ducks' eggs will bring extra prices just before Easter; but at 
country stores "an egg is an egg", and ducks' eggs that weigh from three 
to three and one-half ounces each will bring no more per dozen than 
hens' eggs that weigh two ounces each. City dealers will pay from 
twenty-five to thirty-five cents a pound for prime live duck feathers, 
country merchants and peddlers about one-third as much. Prime young 
ducks will command paying prices in most city markets; in remote 
country places it is difficult to sell them at any price. 

Ducks can be raised with only plenty of water to drink; but after all, 
they are water fowls, and do best when they have access to a pond or 
stream, for, aside from the enjoyment that they doubtless deiive from 
paddling aDout in the water, they pick up a great deal of food about 
such places, and it is the very kind of food that suits them best. The 
Pekins, Rouens and Aylesburys are the leading varieties. 

The Pekins (see Eig. 3) are pure white, or creamy white, with yellow 
bills and orange-colored legs and feet. They are easy to raise, hardy, 
great layers of large, pure white eggs, and excellent market birds. Full- 
grown Pekins will weigh, when fattened for market, from sixteen to 
twenty pounds a pair. 

The Rouen Ducks (see Fig. 4) are marked almost exactly like the wild 
Mallards; in fact they are the wild Mallards domesticated and improved. 
In size and useful qualities they rank next to the Pekins. 

The Aylesburys do not often grow so large as the Pekins, but in other 
respects they rank about the same. 

Concerning the Black Cayugas, a variety not so well known as those 
already mentioned, the "Complete Poultry Book" has the following: 
"This fine breed is American, and is supposed to have originated in the 
neighborhood of Cayuga Lake, New York, by a cross between the wild 
black or Buenos Ayres duck and the wild Mallard. The markings of the 
Cayuga duck are Black throughout, except a narrow white collar around 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 91 

the neck and white flecks on the breast, which latter tend to increase 
with age and are avoided by breeders as much as possible. Both ducks 
and drakes show a greenish tinge about the head. These Cayugas are 
very hardy ; nearly as large as the Rouens, good layers and easily fat- 
tened. They are very quiet in thesr habits and a fence a foot high will 
turn them. They are good sitters but careless mothers, hens being for 
these, as for other ducklings, the best mothers." 

There are two varieties of Muscovy ducks, — the White and the 
Colored. The Colored are black mixed with white. Young Muscovy 
ducks are excellent table birds, but their flesh is not so desirable as they 
grow older. Drakes of this variety are quarelsome, and cannot be kept 




Fig. 4— Rouen Ducks. 

with chickens and turkeys. Muscovies are great flyers, and cannot be 
fenced in like the Pekins, Rouens and Cayugas. Muscovy drakes weigh 
from ten to eleven pounds; ducks from five to seven. 

A flock of ducks around the door-yard or the barn-yard is an unmiti- 
gated nuisance, and for that reason a piece of land around the stream or 
pond should be set apart for their use, and they should be confined to 
its limits. Where the fence crosses a stream put it in water gates. It is 
said that ducks will endure the severe weather of our coldest winters 
without shelter, but it is certainly not good economy to keep them that 
way, and the fact that they always seek shelter during driving storms of 
sleet and snow, and in extremely cold weather, convinces me that they 
need it. Upon our farm there is a long, low building, a few rods from 
the water, and I find that in winter and during tne cold rains in early 
spring and late in fall the ducks spend a good deal of time there. The 
building or shed is but five feet high in front and slopes down to within 
a foot of the ground at the back. It was built of refuse lumber ; has a 
board roof; three windows, each containing six panes of seven by nine 
glass in the south side ; no floor, but every fall a few loads of dry gravel 
are put in, which keeps it free from filth. Under each window there is 
an opening for the ducks and along the rear there are nests. 



92 TIIE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

Ducks are very much inclined to lay around anywhere, and a little 
management is necessary in order to secure the eggs. The best way ia 
to shut them up at night during the laying season. Ducks always lay at 
night, or very early in the morning, so the eggs can be collected and the 
ducks fed and turned out by sunrise. In front of our duck house there 
is a good-sized yard, and as they are always fed in that yard they come 
regularly at sundown for their supper, when they are "shut in for the 
night. 

A trough of water should always be kept in the pen or yard where 
the ducks are shut up at night, unless the weather is freezing cold, and 
in that case they should be supplied witli drink when given their 
supper. Ducks are often killed by giving them a hearty supper without 
drink, and then shutting them up all night where they can not get at 
water, and when not killed outright there is no doubt but that they 
suffer greatly from thirst. 

Ducks generally make poor mothers, and as they lay a long time before 
offering to sit, it is necessary to set the eggs under hens. The directions 
that have been given for the management of turkeys' eggs during incu- 
bation will answer equally well for ducks' eggs. Ducks' eggs usually 
hatch well. Ducklings should not be hatched too early ; those hatched 
in April and May will grow to a good size for the early fall market, and 
those hatched later will make fine birds for the winter market. Until 
they are fully feathered ducklings are liable to die of chills and damp, 
caused by exposure to cold and wet, as young turkeys, and for this 
reason they must be kept out of the dew and rain, and away from ponds 
and streams until they are some six weeks old. 

As soon as the ducklings are well out of the shell, whether the mother 
be a hen or duck, coop them up in a coop with a pen like the one I have 
already described for turkeys. The ducklings cannot climb over the 
sides of this pen, and should be confined to it for about a week. Water 
that has had the chill taken off may be supplied in shallow pans, and 
the ducklings will dabble around in it and enjoy it. Have your duck 
coops as far as convenient from the stream or pond, and they must be 
moved at least three times a week to fresh ground. After the ducklings 
are a week old, if they had a hen mother, the pen may be opened on 
pleasant days after the dew is off the grass, and the mother and her 
brood allowed liberty to wander around in search of lood. By the time 
they are six weeks old their under feathers will be well out and they 
may be allowed unlimited range. 

Ducklings are great eaters, and will eat almost anything in the shape 
of food. Feed cooked food, with plenty of green food until they are old 
enough to give free range. Almost any kind of food that you would 
give chicks and young turkeys is good for ducklings. Until they take to 
the pond or stream, unless insect forage is plenty, feed a little cooked 
meat. Feed often, but never give all they can possibly swallow; some- 
times ducklings will eat until they kill themselves. After they take to 
the water the ducklings will pick up a large amount of the food that 
suits them best, and for this reason ducks are most economically raised, 
in the neighborhood of ponds, streams, wet marshes, or near the sea. 

To get fine, large ducks, keep them growing from the beginning, and 
for three weeks before sending to market feed extra rations of cooked 
potatoes and corn-meal, with whole corn at night. Ducks that are to be 
kept over for breeding stock should be fed through the winter on grain, 



GEO. H. 6TAHL, QtTINCY, ILLINOIS. 93 

with an occasional meal of green food. Keep the best for breeding 
stock, allow one drake for every three ducks. 

In regard to picking live ducks, the following directions from The 
Prairie Farmer will be found useful. "The proper time lor picking ducks 
may be ascertained by catching two or three out of your flock and pull- 
ing out a few feathers" here and there ; if they pull hard and the quills 
are filled with bloody fluid, the feathers are not 'ripe,' and must be left 
a while longer: but if they come out easily, and the quills are clear, the 
feathers are called 'ripe,' and the birds should be picked at once, or they 
will lose the greater part of their feathers. To pick a duck before the 
feathers are ripe is to injure the fowl very much. You will find a bunch 
of long, rather coarse feathers under each wing; do not pluck them, 
they support the wings. When picking, take but few feathers at a time 
between the thumb and forefinger, and give a short, quick jerk down- 
ward ; with a little practice you will soon get the 'knack' of picking 
easily and rapidly. Before commencing tie the duck's legs together, not 
with a cord that "may cut into the flesh and lame the bird, but with a 
tolerably wide strip" of cloth; and if the ducks are inclined to pinch 
with their bills, draw an old cotton stocking over the bead ; but with 
the exception now and then of a vicious old drake, our Pekins are as 
tame as kittens, so we never bother ourselves or the ducks with the 
'night-caps.' Handle laying ducks carefully, and silting ducks and 
ducks that you intend to set soon should not be picked. When hand- 
ling young ducks do not lift or carry them by the legs with the head 
hanging downwards ; their bodies are heavy, bones tender and easily 
broken, or joints may be dislocated. In hot "weather a great deal of the 
down may be taken from the drakes, but the down never should be 
taken in cold weather. Ducks can usually be picked from four to six 
times a year." 

GEESE. 

No fowls can be so cheaply raised as geese, and farmers who have a pas- 
ture containing a pond or stream of water will find the rearing of geese 
very profitable. There is always a good demand, and at good prices too, 
for live geese feathers, and prime geese, dressed or alive, will bring pay- 
ing prices in any city market throughout the late fall, winter and early 
spring months. In New York extra market geese can be sold nearly the 
year round. The leading varieties of thoroughbred geese are the Tou- 
louse, Embden, or Bremen, as they are sometimes called, and the China. 

The Toulouse geese are the largest in the world, weighing, when fully 
matured at three years of age, from thirty to forty pounds a pair. Gos- 
lings of this variety will weigh from four to six pounds apiece when 
four weeks old. In color the Toulouse are dark gray on the back, 
shading off to light gray, and almost white on the under part of the body. 
They have fine feathers ; are not so noisy as common geese; goslings 
easy to raise, and are considered stronger than common goslings. Fig. 
5 is a fine illustration of a pair of Toulouse geese. 

The Embden are not quite so large as the Toulouse, but many cons'der 
the flesh superior ; and the pure white feathers will, in some markets, 
bring a higher price than those of colored geese. The Embdens are 
quite hardy, and the goslings are as easy to raise as those of the Tou- 
louse variety. 

There are two varieties of the China ge^se— the Brown and the White 
^-but they are really the same thing, except in color of their plumage. 



94 THE EXCELSIOR POULTRY BOOK. 

The China geese are not so large as the Toulouse and the Embden, but 
they are better layers, while their reputation for early maturity, hardi- 
ness, and quality of feathers, is quite up to that of the larger breeds. 

The very finest market geese are produced from a cross between the 
Toulouse and the Embden. These cross-bred birds grow larger than 
either of the thoroughbreds, and their flesh is remarkably fine. All the 
geese should be pure Embden and the gander a pure Toulouse. These 
cross-bred geese should never be kept for future breeders, for they pro- 
duce young of inferior size and quality. 




Fig. 5— Toulouse Geese. 

Three geese can be mated to one gander, and the same breeding stock 
kept up for several years. Keep breeding geese thin in flesh, they will 
lay better and their eggs will hatch better than when kept on a full feed 
of grain. The best breeders turn out to pasture as soon as the snow 
is gone, and after the grass is well up feed nothing. After the geese are 
turned out to pasture they can get along without shelter, but it is a good 
plan to have a shed somewhere near the water. 

Geese commence laying from the latter part of February to the middle 
of March, and lay from twenty to thirty eggs before offering to sit. The 
time for hatching goslings is from the middle of April to June. The 
eggs should be set under hens, especially if you keep the Toulouse. 
The Embden and China geese sit well and make good mothers. When 
set under hens goose eggs need the same care during incubation as duck 
and turkey eggs, but when geese sit, let them alone. 

When the goslings are out they must have a warm, dry coop, and like 
young ducks and turkeys they must be sheltered from storms and kept 



GEO. H. STAHL, QUINCY, ILLINOIS. 95 

out of the dew for the first four or five weeks. Give goslings the same 
food recommended for ducklings. "When five or six weeks old they may 
be turned out to pasture, and the rations gradually reduced to one meal 
a day. If on good pasture they will grow on grass alone after the first 
six or seven weeks ; but if extra large geese are desired it will pay to 
give scalded meal or boiled turnips mixed with bran and meal once a day. 

Concerning the fattening of geese for market a writer in the Poultry 
World says : 

" Geese may be fattened for market at two different periods of their 
lives, either at the age of six or eight weeks, when they are termed green 
geese, and are highly esteemed, or when they have attained their iull 
growth. The method is very nearly the same, plenty of wholesome 
food and limited space for exercise, as the more quiet they remain the 
faster they will fatten. Since all geese are gregarious and sociable, if 
only a part of the flock are to be fattened they had best be fastened up 
where they will not see their accustomed companions, as, should they 
feel lonely, they are apt to sulk and refuse food." 

Most geese are sold in winter, and these should be fed (after the supply 
of grass is cut off by frost), with boiled corn, cooked potatoes, boiled 
oats and barley meal, with rowen soaked in warm water and sprinkled 
with meal. Of course they must at all times have plenty of water to 
drink. The Poultry World writer, before quoted from, says that " care 
must be taken to seize just the right time for killing your fatted geese, 
as when they have reached a certain limit they begin to fall off". 
Geese can be picked, two or three times during the season, according to 
the weather. Full-grown Toulouse geese will yield nearly half a pound 
of feathers at a picking. To pick geese, follow the directions for picking 
ducks, given on another page. 




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Gem City Business College, QUINCY, ILL. 



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